BIRDS. 



267 



on the Avon, and in Glenlivet ; also around Dalwhinnie and Upper 

 Spey, Lochaber and Badenoch. In July they are perhaps most 

 frequently to be found in the open moory and heathery gaps in the 

 pine forests of Spey, settling very frequently on the deer- or other 

 wire-fences. Hinxman reports it as common everywhere through- 

 out the areas visited by him, and Dr. Gordon speaks of it, ' Com- 

 mon, but especially on flat, moorish ground.' 'Very numerous' 

 in Upper Badenoch (C. H. Alston). 



In 1893 they were observed to be more than usually abundant 

 on the Cabrach reaches of the Deveron. This, we imagine, was 

 owing to local causes, the great and long-continued drought upon 

 the hill-land having driven them to seek for water by the river-sides. 

 The hills upon the right bank of the Lower Cabrach valley are, 

 even in normal seasons, not particularly well watered. In the 

 same season, in Glen Avon forest, Hinxman found the Meadow 

 Pipit on the summit of Cuaip a Chleirich (3700 feet) on July 3rd. 



Anthus trivialis (L.). Tree Pipit. 



In reference to its occurrence in Sutherland, where it is rare at all 

 times {Fauna of Sutherland and Caithness^ p. 118*), we may add 

 that in 1892 the Tree Pipit was quite absent from the neighbour- 

 hood of Brora, as reported to us by Mr. Baillie. It was first found 

 breeding in that county in 1875. 



Booth says that the Tree Pipit is numerous in Moray and Ross, 

 especially where moderately old Scots fir exists. This certainly 

 has not been our own experience. We have always, so far as our 

 memory goes, found this species haunting birch-trees, sometimes 

 at a considerable elevation, and in isolated clumps at some distance 

 from any large wood. The species is by no means rare in Inverness- 

 shire, indeed quite common, and we should say that no strath con- 

 taining any growth of birch is without a pair or two, so widely 

 distributed is it. At Invergarry we were told by Matheson that 

 the Wood Lark was common there, but this, on investigation, we 

 discovered to be the Tree Pipit — a by no means unlikely mistake 

 to be made by a lad who had had no ornithological training. It is 

 quite common at Guisachan. In another note by Booth, in the 

 Dyke Road Museum Catalogue, he says he never met with the 



* Vide Annals of Scottish Natural History, July 1892, p. 159. 



