PREFACE. ix 



Mr. William Jolly — Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, — 

 Thomas D. Wallace, F.S.A., and Dr. Ramsay H. Traquair. 



Of other Naturalists and Sportsmen who have 

 contributed to our knowledge of ' Moray ' we desire to 

 mention a few well-known names — Colonel Thornton, 

 to whom, as a sportsman and falconer, we owe the 

 record of the true Goshawk nesting in Strathspey; 

 Charles St. John ; Sir Thomas Dick Lauder ; Thomas 

 Edward ; George Norman ; John Hancock ; J. Stables, 

 late factor at Cawdor ; Thomas Macpherson Grant, 

 who resided at Ballindalloch, and enriched the Elgin 

 Museum with a carefully labelled and authentic collec- 

 tion of birds ; the Rev. James Smith, Rector of the 

 Banff Academy ; the brothers Allan or Stuart ; Roualeyn 

 Gordon Gumming and Lady Gordon Gumming of Altyre, 

 whose fine collection of fossils is deposited in the Forres 

 Museum ; E. T. Booth ; and others, of living natiu'alists 

 whose names appear in the text, all, as we repeat, 

 clustering round the central figure of Dr. George Gordon. 



Although we bracket a large number of Edward's 

 records we do not necessarily thereby throw discredit 

 upon hirriy as it is well known it was more his misfortune 

 than his fault that his specimens became dispersed, and 

 are no longer traceable ; we only bracket many because 



