BIRDS. 



149 



killed a number of them in 1900 and in 1901, trapping them with 

 corn in a trap set for Wood-Pigeons, and also shot them coming to a 

 decoy (Rev. H. A. Macpherson in lit, and MSS.). 



The Eev. H. A. Macpherson mentions that on the 9th and 10th 

 November 1900, "a pale greyish variety of the Jay — such an one as 

 Brogli of Siena sold to me two or three years ago — was seen flying 

 about the skirts of the wood facing our east window, i.e. at Pitlochry. 

 The Maxwells assure me that their brother does not allow the keeper 

 to kill either Ow^ls or Jays, so this variety is comparatively safe 

 so long as it keeps to the same vicinity." 



In the vermin lists from Ballinlick only ten Jays figure between 

 1893 and 1903, and none are included in the lists I have received 

 from the Breadalbane estates office, nor is a separate column given to 

 them. This, however, seems a curious omission. 



Now, in Fife, as Col. H. W. Feilden informs me (inlit., Sept. 1904), 

 fifty years ago — say 1855 — Jays w^ere not common in the Howe of 

 Fife (i.e. in the valley of the Eden), and he adds, "I never found 

 a nest." 



The Museum of the old Perthshire Societj^ possessed a sternum of 

 one sent from Mount Melville near St. Andrews, which was purchased 

 by the then authorities in 1881 ; and we find there is also one in the 

 St. Andrews Museum, but without any data, which however had been 

 presented by " Purves of Kinaldy." If this was got at Kinaldy it 

 would constitute the furthest eastern specimen in Fife, so far as 

 is known to me. Mr. W. Berwick includes it as " rare. A few pairs 

 breed in Melville Woods, and one was kept as a pet at Ladybank 

 quite lately." 



The following notes from the Rev. J. B. Dobbie, who resided about 

 four miles to the north of Perth city about fourteen years ago — say 

 1890 — may point to a line of general advance — though I do not insist 

 upon this without clearer sequences of dates. He says: "It 

 certainly did not reside in the woods of my parish during my time, 

 though it was evident from the stuffed specimens in gamekeepers' 

 houses that it had done so not long ago. I knew it, however, to be 

 common in the woods of Glenfarg, i.e. near the Bridge of Earn, on the 

 north slopes of the Ochil Hills, at the present time (1904), and I 

 have been informed that it is abundant in the Meikleour district. 

 Mr. Berwick, farmer, Pathcondie, Collessie, assures me that it is very 

 abundant in his neighbourhood." 



There is a remark in the old Statistical Account which may be worth 

 recording, or rather worthy of repetition, viz.: "Jays are the 



