NOTHS AND QUERIES. 363 
their arrival, however, a third bird, presumably a male, appeared on the 
loch, and a fierce fight ensued between two of the birds, the result of which 
was that the eyrie was shortly afterwards deserted. Although no young 
appear to have been reared on the castle this year, a pair of Ospreys seem 
to have remained in the neighbourhood, as a bird was seen on the castle 
about the middle of June, and I myself saw a pair flying in circles high 
above the loch on July 6th. We saw an Osprey’s nest which had been 
built in a large fir tree overhanging Loch Morlich, but were told by the 
keeper that it had not been used for the last five or six years. Another 
interesting bird we noticed was the Greenshank (T’otanus canescens), of 
which species we saw three or four pairs, all of which, from their manners, 
appeared to have young. Their alarm-cry is exceedingly resonant, and 
they also utter a chattering note, like that of the Kestrel. We only saw 
one young bird, which I flushed from some marshy ground, while the parent 
birds were flying over my head, calling loudly. It was fairly strong on the 
wing, so the Greenshank must be rather an early breeder. This species 
often perches on trees; in fact, we saw them more often on the tops of 
small firs than on the ground. They seem, however, to have considerable 
difficulty in keeping their balance on trees, and probably only resort to 
them when they suspect danger. We met with several parties of Crested 
Tits (Parus.cristatus), both in Rothiemurchus and Glenmore forests. They 
do not appear to be at all uncommon in the district, and when once we had 
learnt their call-note, we came across them nearly every day. The note to 
my ear sounds like a spluttering “ ptur-r-r-r-re,” rather low, and sometimes 
preceded by a shrill “ zi-zi-zi.”. Some of the young had apparently just 
left the nest, and were being fed by the parents. We also saw several 
parties of Crossbills (Lowia curvirostra), consisting of both young and old 
birds, in Glenmore Forest, where they had probably been reared. The 
Common Sandpiper (Totanus hypoleucus) was particularly numerous on the 
shores of all the lochs which we visited, especially on Loch Morlich, on the 
banks of which we found two nests, each containing four eggs. This bird 
follows the streams well up into the mountains, and we saw them up to 
about 2000 feet above sea-level. We saw plenty of Black-headed Gulls 
(Larus ridibundus), either fishing on the lochs or following the plough like 
Rooks, and we found a colony of about two hundred pairs which were 
nesting on a marshy loch near Aviemore, where the nests were built 
among the reeds, and usually almost floating on the water. A great number 
of Oystercatchers (Hematopus ostralegus) breed on the banks of the river 
Spey, above Aviemore. The birds were exceedingly numerous and very 
noisy, and we found one nest with three eggs, and many others which only. 
contained shells. The young birds on being handled feign death, drooping 
their.-necks and relaxing all their muscles, so that they appear quite limp 
