BIRDS. 



to the spot, assisted by a local guide, and photographs were obtained 

 of the snowfield and scree beneath, and of the place where they are 

 known to nest. I have already spoken of this in the introductory 

 chapters. 



Millais relates as follows : "Shooting at Dunalastair in August I saw 

 a male Snow-Bunting. It was in full summer plumage, and I tried 

 hard to procure it, but without success. From the presence of the 

 bird at this time of year we might presume it had been breeding 

 in the neighbourhood." 



Snow-Buntings have also been met with at the height of their 

 nesting season — midsummer — in 1905, on a mountain considerably 

 further south in Tay than the situation I illustrate in the plate. 

 There might be little harm done, I fancy, in naming the locality, but 

 "discretion is the better part of valour," so I refrain until it be found 

 whether the birds become established there, or have only been 

 abnormally pressed southwards by inclemency of weather in the 

 summer of 1905. 



In the extreme east of the defined area of this volume, I at 

 present consider it only a winter visitant ; whether coming from the 

 centres of foreign occupation, for the greater part, or of the young of 

 home-bred birds drifting shorewards from their breeding places in the 

 higher gTOunds of the mountain ranges I have defined, I allow it 

 tentatively (vide our Fauna of the Moray Basin, under species). For 

 my own part, I believe these wintering birds come to our coast from 

 both the sources indicated above, and I shall certainly be inclined to 

 base that belief upon such experiences as I have had, and on those 

 of men I know, and not " upon the evidence of things not seen," and 

 I hope my brother ornithologists will allow me some latitude in thus 

 giving expression to my fixed belief. 



Naturally the Snow-Bunting is most abundant in severe winters, 

 and in these days that surely requires little or no demonstration. 



In most seasons Snow-Buntings are known to arrive at the mouth 

 of the river Tay in many succeeding flocks, as Col. Drummond Hay 

 — long resident in the Carse of Gowrie — tells us from his own 

 observation, — "flock after flock" in certain winds, in October and 

 November. " None," he continues, " remain there, but, after resting, 

 move more inland.'' So Col. Drummond Hay considered. But with 

 all due deference, I am inclined to substitute for the above italics 

 the following, " move further south." 



My opinion is that our own home-bred birds first move shorewards, 

 and in ordinary seasons remain at no great distance from their 



