BIRDS. 



113 



on the top of an apple-tree in Bowerswell garden, Peith, and it is now 

 in the Museum (the date you will see on the label)/' 



I beHeve, however, that there is an increase of these lovely birds, 

 and that Perthshire is the present headquarters of the species, as I 

 heard of their occurrence in several places along the route of my 

 peregrinations — or survey — in 1905 : and I had the rare pleasure of 

 actually seeing one pair not very far from Methven, where I had 

 previously been assured by Mr. Malloch of their presence. This was 

 upon the 2Sth of May. They flew along the beech hedgeside in front 

 of our horses, and finally crossed the horses' heads and flew into a 

 strip of hardwood plantation by the side of the road. / was pUa.std ! 



I heard of others at or near KiUin, and saw two in Mr. D. Dewar's 

 (second) collection ; and I also heard of their annual appearance in 

 flocks in winter lower down the Tay valley, at Kenmore and else- 

 where. Insistence was not placed upon the fact of their nesting, but 

 references only made to their winter appearance. However, the Rev. 

 J. C. Mackenzie, Kenmore, an able observer, simply accounts for the 

 increase — which he acknowledges — as being due to a recurrence of the 

 growth of Scotch thistles along the upper verges of cultivation and 

 below the plantations which succeed to this belt of agricultural land, 

 and to the less carefid husbandry of later years. 



My friend Mr. FnDst, Crieff, writes me of one seen at Abercairney, 

 i.e. a little further west, and nearer to Crieff than Methven, about 

 eighteen months previous to the date of his letter (20th June 1905). 

 That would be a winter oc-currence (in winter of 1903). One was shot. 

 Even such slight indications of dispersal are not barren of interest, 

 if remembered, and studied sls of chronological importance in the future. 



Chrysomitris spinus (L.). Siskin. 



Eesident. Common and increasing. Breeds, Xot truly gregarious. 

 The Siskin is frequently wrongly named " Gk)ldie.'' Hence some 

 confusion is apt to get into our records between it and the last- 

 mentioned species. 



It is, though common, of but local distribution, as the gi-ound 

 which it favours is not universally found. Col. Campbell truly 

 remarks that it is found " nesting in tall Scots firs where the nest is 

 diificiUt to find." That is so in my experience, and certainly I never 

 knew of it breeding among birch woods, as has been suggested to me, 

 in a more northern area. 



The earliest rec-ord of its nesting I can find in Kincardineshire is 

 by Macgillivray (British Birds, 1843, vol. i. p. 402). 



H 



