132 



BIRDS. 



Plectrophenax nivalis {L.), Snow-Bunting. 



Resident. Common. Breeds. Not truly gregarious. 



I think it would be somewhat pedantic to refuse the ahove status 

 to the species in Scotland. 



In the old Statistical Account, among very many accounts of the 

 Snow-Bunting nesting in various parts of the country north of the 

 Grampian ranges, I find under parishes contained Mdthin the basin of 

 Tay and Strathmore the following: few of the last, i.e. Snow- 

 flakes, hatch out on our higher mountains" (op. cit., vol. xii., 1794, 

 p. 135). It is interesting to find so early a recognition of the fact. 

 There are many other notices taken of it in other parts of Scotland 

 besides the aliove. "We have also the authority of the late Mr. W. 

 Macgillivray ; and of late years there has been plenty of proof of its 

 nesting forthcoming. But whether the nesting of the species has 

 been continuous or not, or only of comparatively recent development, 

 it would now be extremely difficult to decide. 



However that may be, I think it may safely be said that the 

 present distribution of these birds in the nesting season embraces a 

 wide area in the northern half of Scotland, both along the backbone 

 of the country and the high mountains of the great divide between 

 east and west, and also the main divide between north and south or 

 the ranges and their spurs of the Grampians. 



But I have no intention of going so far as to maintain that the 

 minute and accurate details of its breedino^ rano-e are actually 

 mapped out. That may well occupy a new generation. 



Horn says: "Nests in most of the high mountains, especially 

 Ben Lawers and Shiehallion," but without any positive e^^dence 

 adduced. (But see infra.) 



Col. Drummond Hay mentions the name of Mr. J. T. Car- 

 rington as an observant naturalist, and as having produced e^ddence 

 of the Snow-Bunting nesting in the mountains to the west of Rannoch, 

 where he had resided, and who had traversed most of these mountains 

 in that ^'ic•inity (v. Scot. Nat., 1879-80, p. 245). 



Mr. Robert Gray puts on record, upon the authority of Mr. AY. 

 Hamilton, of London (?), a pair seen on Scuir Ouran (Argyll)^ 

 and speaks of that locality as "probably the furthest extension of its 

 breeding quarters in the west of Scotland," or words to that effect. 

 The birds there were seen on the 12th July 1868. At least three 

 pairs are credited as nesting on Ben Ne\ds. 



In 1901 the late Rev. H. A. Macpherson, writing from Pitlochry 



