BIRDS. 



303 



correspondents who, if not ornithologists, were at least mountaineers, 

 and accustomed to keep their eyes about them as they climbed, 

 that we do not consider it necessary to give these details, now 

 that the nest and eggs have at last been found by experienced 

 ornithologists, as we shall presently relate. Suffice it to say that, 

 by comparing all these statements, it cannot be doubted that the 

 headquarters of the nesting haunts of the Snow-flake is among the 

 highest of the Cairngorms, and the names of several hills are now 

 before us where they have been repeatedly observed. These data 

 have been known to us for many years. 



Other mountain areas frequented by the Snow Bunting we have 

 recorded in the extreme north-west of our drainage area (vide 

 Fauna of Sutherland and Caithness), and here also there has been an 

 appreciable increase in their numbers of late years, as we were in- 

 formed in 1893 that several pairs are now known to breed among 

 the tops of the Sutherland hills. 



Buckley was also informed by Mr. Malcolm that he possesses 

 eggs of the Snow Bunting taken up Glengany. 



Gray {Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 126) says that Ben 

 Wyvis, Ben Dearg, and an entire group of Bens lying to the south 

 and east of Gairloch, are frequented by small flocks in summer ; 

 and again he gives an extract from the Journal of a Mr. W. 

 Hamilton, London, who saw two pairs on the top of Scour Ouran 

 on July 12th, 1868. We made inquiries about the birds on Ben 

 Wyvis, but the person to whom we wrote either could not, or 

 w^ould not, tell us whether they were there or not. 



It may not be generally known that this bird has also bred in 

 confinement. Three eggs were laid in a small aviary belonging 

 to Mr. John Gatherer of Elgin, and they were presented by him to 

 the Elgin Museum on 10, viii 1887. It was an opeii-.iir ivi.iry. 

 but the eggs were addled. 



Long as the Snow Bunting has evaded discovery and actual 

 record as a nesting species on the Cairngorms since Pennant and 

 MacGillivray first noticed it among the summits which ' guard the 

 rills of infant Dee,' there is little cause to doubt its continuoas 

 presence there for at least one hundred years. That an increase 

 in its numbers, however, has t^iken place we are quite convinced, 

 as those who have spent a large share of their time amongst our 

 mountains and Highlands, and are therefore perhaps in the best 



