170 



BIRDS. 



The Cuckoo does not appear to be very abundant in ordinary 

 seasons in the north-east of Fife, and Mr, W. Berwick designates it 

 as "seen occasionally. Heard this year (1905) on the first of May." 



By August 14, 1905, Cuckoos seem mostly to have left the 

 upper Tay and Killin districts, where I had found them so unusually 

 abundant in May. Mr. W. Evans, during the time he resided at 

 Killin in that month, only met with one young Cuckoo at the foot of 

 Glen Lochay on the 14th. (Contrast this with the notes given above 

 of the late stay in successive seasons near Aberfeldy, as witnessed by 

 Mr. W. Horn (1877) and myself in 1880.) 



Order STRIGES. 



Family STRIGIDiE. 



There are no columns for Owls in the lists of vermin killed on Perth- 

 shire estates which have been returned to me. And, at the same time, 

 there are no returns of Eats killed ! We have always known that Perth- 

 shire is an enlightened county, however far short some others are of any 

 such praise ! 



Strix flammea, L. Barn-Owl.^ 



Kesident. Fairly common. Breeds. 



Don spoke of it as " common " at the time he wrote. 



Mr. Eedle saw one at Eannoch in 1870 (Zool, 1871, p. 2656), but 

 it is not universally distributed even now in 1904 ; or perhaps I 

 ought rather to say, it is, if general, not abundant, and rather confined 

 to certain districts. 



By 1880 Col. Drummond Hay considered it "almost extirpated 

 by pole-traps." 



In 1879 old haunts given were, amongst others. Castle Menzies in 

 Eannoch, ruins of the old Cathedral at Dunkeld, in Mid-Tay districts, 

 and here and there in the lower grounds. But considered rarer in 

 the north-east by 1900, and Dr. Dewar marks it so : "Eesident, not 

 common in the east." Mr. Milne makes it out " Eesident, but not 

 common ; breeds in the cliffs and rocks of St. Cyrus and other parts 

 of the coast." 



1 This poor bird has been reehristened— as separable from the type of Liunteus— as 

 Aluco fiammea Kirchoffi. Some bewildered field-naturalist may be expected to be on 

 the hunt for some red-handkerchiefed bird in foreign parts, whereas really the deviation 

 was found in Wales ! 



