BIRDS. 



Ill 



species and their haunts have been discovered in Scotland on our 

 mountains. I think it rather idle to go on insisting that tempera- 

 tures have to do with the selection of nesting sites ; or to go a little 

 further, that temperatures have to do with dispersal and distribution, 

 and that altitudes of haunts of various species above sea-level affect 

 these species to quite an appreciable degree, in different latitudes 

 and even in different localities. 



But later in the season of 1905 Mr. Wm. Evans found Sand- 

 Martins abundant around the Killin district, so that apparently the 

 cold spring and late cold summer, which remained almost Arctic in 

 character up to late in June, in the central districts of Scotland and 

 in Tay, only exercised a temporary check upon the migration, 

 shortening, however, the period of the nesting season appreciably. 



Family FRINGILLIDiE. 



Carduelis elegans, Steph. Goldfinch. 



Resident. Common but not abundant. Local now, and cannot be 

 called general in its distribution. Not truly gregarious. Much 

 rarer than formerly, but believed to be recovering its numbers in 

 some localities. 



Even as long ago as the date of the old Statistical Account its com- 

 parative rarity was voiced as regards Tay ; but its abundance was at 

 the same time spoken of in Ross-shire, presumably in east Ross- 

 shire. 



In 1813 Don considered that there was a decline in its numbers, 

 and that the severe winter of 1795 decimated them. In this connec- 

 tion it is interesting to find that Mr. Robert Gray mentions, quoting 

 from old parish registers, that " Goldfinches were abundant up to the 

 year prior to the last, viz. 1794" {Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 145). 



Macgilli\Tay mentions a similar decadence due to the severe 

 winter of 1823."^ 



Later, Col. Drummond Hay, having carefully watched for any 

 accounts of the Goldfinch in any part of Tay, or of its nesting there, 

 noted a nest robbed at Aberfeldy in 1889, and another in June 1902 

 at the foot of Loch Tay ; and he then produces evidence of a flock 

 having been seen by Mr. AthoU Macgregor, who shot one of the 

 individuals. Col. Drummond Hay then refers to Col. Campbell's 

 account. 



The nest and eggs taken at the lower end of Loch Tay were 

 deposited in the Perth Museum {Annals Scot. Nat. Hist.^ p. 1896). 



