250 



BIRDS. 



tioii, when, as we have often noted by compass, they travel from 

 top to top of the pines, in an invariable south-westerly direction. 

 We have observed this on the Findhorn in forty-year-old pine- 

 woods, and in the Spey valley, besides — more generally and without 

 the aid of compass — elsewhere. They are accompanied on such 

 occasions by other species — Gold Crests, Chaffinches in large 

 numbers, Creepers and other species of Tits. This migration is 

 carried on whilst the birds feed rapidly as they go along, and they 

 seem to ' take the different styles of country they meet with as 

 they fly,' deviating little from the south-westerly direction usually 

 pursued. 



As early as the date of Mr. George Norman's writings, which 

 referred principally to the district around Forres, he noted the 

 Cole Tit as 'very common.' In 1890 we ourselves did not meet 

 with it at all on the Deveron, at Rothiemay, until July, but in 

 1891 found it abundantly; it was, indeed, quite the commonest 

 Titmouse on Lower Deveron in April and May of that year. It is 

 reckoned as * abundant ' by Dr. J. 0. Wilson. We have not met 

 with it far up the glens among the hills or in the upper reaches 

 of the rivers. Mr. Hinxman considers the Cole Tit as the most 

 abundant of the Paridse in Glen Avon and Glenlivet ; and of later 

 dates it is almost as common in many localities, such as Forres and 

 the Findhorn. We ourselves have never, in many years' experi- 

 ence of Dalwhinnie, met with it so far up the valley or tributaries 

 of Spey, but Mr. J. Backhouse in 1885 saw it once only in the 

 glen of the Allt-an't-Sluie in June or July. He was told previously 

 by a gamekeeper of Colonel Macpherson's of Glen Truim that it 

 was to be found there. Mr. Charles H. Alston marks it as ' very 

 common ' in Upper Badenoch.^ 



In 1893, although it was previously supposed by Hinxman 

 only to appear in Glenfiddich in winter, yet that gentleman found 

 parties of Tits ranging as high as Glen Builg in July of that 

 year (1600-1700 feet), but none were observed nesting around 

 Inchrory (1300). We feel sure that these parties seen at Loch 



^ All Mr. C. H. Alston's notes, be it remembered, are upon species observed 

 between June and September 1890 ; there are no spring notes. Our own notes and 

 observations around Dalwhinnie and Upper Badenoch do not date much later in the 

 year than 8th August (on several occasions when fishing Loch Errochd), nor earlier 

 than April. 



