276 



BIRDS. 



finished and the first egg laid ; the fourth and last was laid by the 

 9th. On the 26th the eggs were hatched (one was addled), i.e. 

 fifteen days after the bird began to sit. One young bird:flew 

 from the nest at 2.30 p.m. on September 12th, and the other 

 two had departed by 5.30 P.M. the next day. 



In 1893 no Swallows were seen about Brora (W. Baillie). 

 The O.S.A. has several entries of its occurrence in the parishes 

 of Kirkhill, Eothiemurchus and Duthil, Grange and Mortlach. 



We do not find the Swallow common now at Dalwhinnie, nor 

 at Findhorn Bridge near Tomatin, in July, and decidedly local on 

 the Dulnan. We saw six or eight pairs hawking over the meadows 

 by the river-side, at Benanach farm, above Carr Bridge, but generally 

 in the upper districts it is certainly not abundant, and very local. 

 It is, however, abundant at Forres, and Elgin, and the Laigh of 

 Moray, ' arriving,' says Brown, * about the 15th April and depart- 

 ing in September.' 



Chelidon urbica {L.). House Martin. 



North of the Great Glen the House Martin is more numerous per- 

 haps than the last species, though possibly quite as local. In the 

 Annals of Scottish Natural History for July 1892 we recorded a place 

 called the Green Table near Helmsdale, as a place where Martins 

 breed, but Mr. Baillie informs us that in 1891 only one pair bred 

 there. At Tain they are said to be less common than the pre- 

 ceding species, as they certainly are farther north, and our own 

 experience of the east of Eoss-shire bears this out. A few are 

 always to be seen under the Suspension Bridge in the town of 

 Inverness, where they probably breed. Another place where these 

 birds nest in numbers, according to Mr. A. Craig, is Urquhart 

 Castle, * chiefly amid the battlements on the top of the old 

 tower.' Hugh Miller, when writing an account of the parish of 

 Cromarty, speaks of a * colony of swallows (Martins) having 

 built from time immemorial in the hollows of one of the loftiest 

 precipices of the romantic Burn of Ethie.' This was in 1845. 

 Booth found them breeding in the Cromarty cliffs in 1869, and 

 got birds and nest from there. 



Mr. Malcolm records them as being common at Invergarry. 



Albinos are not very common. One was sent to Snowie for 

 preservation in 1882. 



