BIRDS. 



117 



It was not more than five feet from the ground . . . and still 

 retained its shape sufficiently for identification." 



Millais favours me with the follo\Ning note : "A pair of these 

 birds passed over my head flying very high, in the winter of 1887. 

 There was no mistaking them or their peculiar ' clinking ' note, which 

 they always utter as they fly. I think Malloch has received a Perth- 

 shire specimen, but am not sure. It has recently been obtained in 

 Aberdeenshire (Dee)."' 



On the 23rd May 1905 — shortly before I w^ent north — I saw in 

 Small's shop in Edinburgh one "killed in Fife.'"' Alas! and I had 

 previously been informed that birds had again been seen near their 

 old breeding haunt in that county. 



Passer domesticus {L.). Common House-Sparrow. 



Resident. Abundant. Breeds. Increasing in numbers and range. 



Horn says : " About twenty years ago," i.e. prior to his writing 

 ill 1879 — or to fix a date, say 1859 — "the Common Sparrow was 

 hardly known in the Upper AthoU district." But now (1902) it 

 may be found about houses in parts of Eannoch, pushing its in- 

 domitable courses wherever the barest sustenance can be found, 

 which are necessary to supply its small requirements — sraall at least 

 tu-ith regard to variety. 



Col. Drummond Hay also testifies to its former rarity in Rannoch, 

 and its comparative abundance since 1880. 



Passer montanus (L.). Tree-Sparrow. 



Very scarce and very local. Resident. Breeds, but absolute records 

 of its doing so are very few. 



Don's account of "Mountain-Sparrows on the mountains of 

 Angus " cannot be seriously entertained nor accepted. Probably his 

 informant was confusing it with the Snow-Bunting or some other 

 small bird. (What 's in a name 1 Often a great deal of error, I 

 think.) 



Col. Drummond Hay had no notice of it before 1880; but in 

 that year he records two broods of Tree-Sparrows near Stonehaven 

 (in lit. to me, January 15, 1880). 



In the year 1888, w^hen going northwards in the train to Aber- 

 deen, I saw and watched for several minutes at least two pairs of 

 Tree-Sparrows close to Auldbar Railway Station, but since then I 

 have utterly failed to hear or see anything more about Tree-Sparrows 

 in that district. And Mr. Milne has heard nothing of it in the 



