BIRDS. 



215 



Again Mr. Hoy has the note :— ' On February 26th, 1818, one 

 was shot here, and I am informed a nest of them was found last 

 year.' 



St. John^ says it was common in his time in the autumn, haunt- 

 ing the grass fields for insects, or the junii^er bushes and holly 

 trees for berries, in large scattered flocks. A pair always bred in 

 his garden near Elgin. 



At the date of the O.S.A. there was no mention of it at all in 

 any of the parish lists of the area. It is, however, recorded 

 as early as 1843, when Dr. George Gordon speaks of it as 

 abundant; and Mr. Foljambe,^ in 1844, mentions it as breeding 

 every year about Grant Lodge. By 1851 it had increased in 

 numbers {Fauna of Moray)^ and St. John also speaks of it as breed- 

 ing commonly. 



By 1881 it became temporarily scarcer after the severe winters 

 of 1878-79 and 1880-81, but recovered its numbers and distribution 

 soon afterwards. We found it abundant in the nesting season all 

 over the area by 1884-85 — on the Deveron, on Speyside, and 

 Strathspey; even at Tomintoul (1150 feet), and Dalwhinnie (1200 

 feet). It disappeared from the last-mentioned locality after 1879 

 and during 1880-81, but reappeared in or prior to 1885 as a 

 breeding species, as observed by Mr. J. Backhouse,^ who found 

 a pair frequenting the plantation there. It was not, however, 

 abundant at the higher elevations in 1885, but by 1889-90, 91, 92, 

 was found abundant everywhere, even high up in the narrowei 

 birch-clad glens of the Cam districts about the sources of the 

 Deveron, Spey and tributaries, Findhorn, and lower spurs of the 

 Monadhliath Mountains, and apparently annually increasing, very 



^ All St. John's notes of course pre-date 1854, and his Li-it of the BinU of Moray 

 date between 1847 and 1854. His letters were to and from his friends — Penrose, 

 Gumming, Innes, etc. Nothing was omitted in Mr. D. Douglas's issues of his 

 Natural History and Sport in Moray, all being printed verbatim, but Innea may 

 have touched up a sentence occasionally, though never altering a fact (David Douglas, 

 in lit. September 9, 1891). St. John lived first, after he came to Moray, at Invereme, 

 below Forres. Afterwards he lived at South College, in Elgin— famous for its 

 splendid fruit-gardens. 



2 Mr. Foljambe was tenant of Grant Lodge in 1844 and for some years after, and 

 contributed many bird-notes to Dr. Gordon's Fauna of Moray. 



3 Mr. J. Backhouse gave us a list of the species he observed in the summer of 

 1890 (?) around Dalwhinnie, where he was resident for several weeks. 



