BIRDS. 



253 



we have searched the locality about Boat of Garten, Docharn, and 

 Can- Bridge in vain for a glimpse of Marsh Tits, nor did we dis- 

 cover it around Lynwilg or Aviemore. It is a horrid little bete noir 

 to us as yet. 



The late Mr. A. G. More, quoting his authority for that dis- 

 trict — viz., Mr. Wm. Dunbar — includes it as breeding 'even as 

 far north as Inverness ' ; and, on the authority of Edward, as 

 ' occasionally in Aberdeenshire.' Mr. Geo. Sim will no doubt be 

 able to satisfy us as regards the latter record, and we have no 

 further evidence of Mr. Dunbar's, beyond the probability that he 

 repeated Mr. St. John's record, already mentioned. 



Mr. Booth does not appear to have met with it anjrwhere in 

 the north at any season ; and above we have, we believe, given 

 every record and statistic published. 



But, following up his finding of the birds in 1889 and 1891, 

 and distinctly under the feeling of certainty of their nesting in 

 Strathspey, Mr. William Evans promptly set to work in 1893 to 

 prove it. This he did by finding two nests in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Aviemore, in May of that year, full particulars 

 of which are given by him in an excellent paper in the Annals of 

 Scottish Natural History for October 1893, and which put the 

 question at rest as regards their present nesting distribution. 

 To Mr. Evans all credit is due for his persevering work in this 

 direction, though we cannot quite agree with all his views ex- 

 pressed as regards statements outside of his ascertained facts, — I 

 mean such as relate to Cole Tits, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, and 

 St. John's remarks (lac. cit.). 



Since Mr. W. Evans's discovery, we have also heard of a pair 

 breeding near the west lodge of Darnaway from our friend Mr. 

 Oswin A. J. Lee, and we have the record of another pair nesting in 

 an elm-tree at Drumduan in the month of J une, as we are informed 

 by Mr. James Brown of Forres. This takes us back to Mr. 

 Norman's record many years previously, but we cannot admit that 

 any great increase has become patent in this part of our area. 



Mr. R. H. Read met with several in the woods near Loch an 

 Eilein on May 15th, 1889, in which locality we have utterly failed 

 to find it during repeated visits and most careful searching. 



This bird, local in Strathspey in most years, and perha})S most 

 common around Aviemore and Kinrara, as shown by Mr. Evans, 



