Xll PREFACE. 



Transactions of the Inverness Scientific Society and Field 

 Club there is only one short original paper devoted to 

 the Birds of the district, and that by ourselves ! ; one 

 short paragraph on the destruction of Salmon by stake- 

 nets ; and a communication from the Banffshire Field 

 Club by Edward on the Protection of Birds. The three 

 volumes cover a space of time from 1875 to 1888. 



Nor have we been much more successful in obtaining 

 correspondents elsewhere than our old Sutherland friends. 

 Principal among these others was the late Lord Tweed- 

 mouth, who was at great pains to help us in every way 

 in his power, and from his long connection with the 

 North was especially serviceable to us when working out 

 the history of the Osprey and Great Spotted Wood- 

 pecker. Those other correspondents who have, aided us 

 have done so most heartily and effectually, and their 

 names will be found, as already stated, appended as 

 footnotes here and there throughout our volumes. Had 

 our subject been Archaeology, Botany, or Geology, we 

 should have had most able and efficient help, for on 

 these subjects our friends in Inverness and the neigh- 

 bourhood are authorities.^ 



^ So long ago as 1876 this apparent want of enthusiasm in Inverness was 

 animadverted upon by Mr. William Jolly, Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, on 

 the occasion of an inaugural address of the Inverness Scientific Society's Field 



