124 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. viii. 



Mas identified on May 20th, and Continental Redbreasts 

 [Dandahis r. rtihectda) on May 16th (one), 17th (two), 22nd 

 and 23rd (one). 



White's Thrush in Aberdeenshire. — Mr. A. L. Thomson 

 records (Scot. Nat. 1914, p. 201) that an example of Turdvs 

 d. aureus was killed by flying against a Avindow in the Castlehill, 

 Aberdeen, on October 6th, 1913. 



The Ospreys of Loch an Eilein.— The Scottish Naturalist 

 for July, 1914 (pp. 149-158), contains a reprint of an interesting 

 aiticle by Mr. C. G. Cash from the Cairngorm Journcd of July, 

 1907, in which the history of the Loch an Eilein Ospreys 

 {Pandion h. haliaetus) is traced with considerable detail 

 between the years 1804 and 1902. Mr. Cash criticises the 

 account given by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and T. E. Buckley 

 in the Fauna of the Moray Basin, Vol. XL, and points out 

 some unimportant inaccuracies. We do not think, however, 

 that the statements quoted from Dunbar's " Reminiscences," 

 and the extract from Mr. Howe's letter can be taken to 

 mean that three eggs and two young birds were found in 

 the same nest at one time. In the former case Dunbar 

 speaks only of the three eggs, and in the second two young 

 birds and one egg are mentioned. That this nest was 

 severely harried by Roualeyn Gordon -Cumming and Lewis 

 Dunbar m the 'forties and early 'fifties is of course well 

 known, and there is evidence that the Loch an Eilein or 

 Loch Gamhna nests were also robbed in 1887, 1889, 1891, 

 and possibly in 1885-6, 1892, and 1898. It is, however, 

 quite clear from Mr. Cash's record that in every year 

 from 1894 to 1897 young were hatched, while in 1899 

 the eggs were broken dviring fighting between the birds 

 themselves. Since 1899 no breedmg has taken place, and in 

 1901 and 1902 only a single bird appeared at the Castle 

 and remained mateless. Since then this historic site, sad 

 to say, has been untenanted. As to the cause of the final 

 disappearance of the birds, there are not sufficient facts to 

 show, and perhaps it will never be known. There are some 

 who have laid the blame on egg collecting, while others have 

 put it down to the shooting of the birds on migration. 

 However much we may deplore the taking of the eggs years 

 ago, it is evident from the facts above narrated that egg 

 collecting was not the cause of the birds' disappearance. 

 As to the shooting of Ospreys on migration, it is unfortunately 

 a fact that a number were so shot during the years preceding 

 those which witnessed the disappearance of the Osprey 

 from Loch an Eilein, but it is also a fact that a number of 



