BIRDS. 



179 



The hold that this species has upon a claim to the Tay fauna 

 rests on the above and on the following evidence. 



There is one in the collection of Mr. Marshall, Stanley, from 

 Logiealmond, obtained by Mr. Alexander Stewart on 7th February 

 1880, and is probably the one referred to by Col. Drummond Hay. 



Dr. Dewar quotes one in the Montrose Museum with the date 

 1850, but I have been unable to get any further particulars. 



As long ago as the time of Don's writings he included it by the 

 name of "Moor-Buzzard,"'" inhabiting heaths, etc., and says: *'I have 

 seen this species on the hills of Turm and Pitcandley," but Don 

 makes no mention of the Hen-Harrier. 



Circus cyaneus (L.). Hen-Harrier, 



Old Gaelic name, An f cun Jionn, i.e. The White Bird (old Statistical 

 Account, p. 248). 



Exceedingly rare, if not quite extinct. Certainly no longer 

 breeds, and there is little evidence of its having bred for a long 

 series of years. It used to be familiarly known by the local name 

 of "Blue-sleeves," — a name, however, also sometimes erroneously 

 bestowed upon the Peregrine Falcon. 



Since 1832, or thereby — about the time, indeed, that Macgillivray 

 wrote — the Hen-Hamer had become quite a rarity in the Lowlands ; 

 and long before 1880 — which I quote as a landmark, because Col. 

 Drummond Hay brought the ornithology of Tay down to that time 

 — it may be considered to have been extinct, certainly as a breeding 

 species. Col. Drummond Hay had often watched these birds quar- 

 tering the ground "like a pair of thoroughbred pointers," quite low 

 amongst the carse-lands. 



Even by 1845 the Xew Statistical Account states it to be rare in 

 Killin parish. 



In the east and north-east districts there seems no reasonable 

 doubt but that it was at one time common, or even plentiful, and 

 this within the memory of people still living (1904). Xow it is 

 practically extinct. Mr. Milne's list has it "rare visitor,"' and he 

 instances " one shot in Drumtochty Glen, and now in the collection 

 in the Castle." I find that Mr. Small received " one from Forfar " 

 on 6th November 1869 (Registers), and this is probably the one 

 referred to above. 



In Fife, in 1840, a male and a female were seen by Mr. James 

 Keddie "not uncommonly about Strathtyrum, Magus Moor, and 



