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DESCRIPTIVE CHAPTERS. 



CENTRAL TAY. 

 Loch Ordie. 



Having a permit from the Duke of Atholl to visit this old haunt 

 of the Ospreys — as referred to in the text — I drove through the 

 private grounds of the estate behind Dunkeld and Craig-y-Barns, 

 and by a circuitous route visited first the Loch of the Lowes. Our 

 route twisted and twined round rugged knolls and tree-clad or 

 treeless knobbies, past the shooting-lodge of Reimore and lands of 

 Cardney. At Reimore we obtained the key of the gates which give 

 entrance to the further extension of the way to Loch Ordie. The 

 day was still and dark, and cold and threatening, and but few small 

 birds were in evidence along our route. 



During the whole drive, which occupied some three or four 

 hours, only a few straggling pairs of Missel-Thrushes were seen, a 

 few Pied Wagtails and the ever-present Chaffinch, a few Willow- 

 Warblers, and a solitary Robin here and there. On the Loch of the 

 Lowes there were a good many Tufted Ducks and Coots, and a pack 

 of Black-headed Gulls were busily feeding upon water-insects in the 

 shallows among the reed-beds. On Loch Ordie only a few pairs of 

 Wild Ducks were visible, and the Common Sandpiper flitted along 

 the shore. 



I got the keeper, resident at the side of Loch Ordie, to come 

 further with us and point out the exact spot where the spruce- 

 tree which contained the Osprey's nest was, and where the stump 

 of it remains in evidence. And I got him to rehearse the sad tale 

 of their annihilation, which, in almost every particular, verified the 

 previous accounts which I had received. It was undoubtedly Atholl 

 Macgregor who counselled that the whole tree be cut down. On 

 him rests that responsibility. Loch Ordie gave me the impression 

 of a perfect and lone residence for the Osprey ; the loch contains 

 good-sized trout suitable for their maintenance, and I saw these 

 rising over the still and windless surface. 



After obtaining several careful views of the deserted site and 

 its surroundings, we drove on by a different return-route over very 

 holey (and unholy !) roads, which twisted round the numerous hills 



