180 



BIRDS. 



Winthank, which properties belonged at that time to James Wemyss, 

 Esq., of Winthank — my friend Col. Feilden's grandfather." 



The value in the fauna of the north and north-east of Fife at the 

 present time may safely be described, as Mr. "\V. Berwick describes 

 it: ^'Used to breed in Fife, but now very rare." 



Circus cineraceus (Mont.). Montagu's Harrier. 

 Rare. 



One is inserted, upon Mr. Malloch's authority, under date of 

 10th September 1894 (Register), with the ownership as " Mackay," 

 and was returned to him 14th January 1897. 



"On the 10th May 1S85 a fine male was shot near Mayfield, and 

 on 30th November following a female was proeiu-ed at Seaton Den. 

 Both these are in my collection," as Dr. F. T. Dewar tells me in his 

 list, and as mentioned in his Oniitliology of Arbroath. His note in the 

 list only gives the fact thus : Male and female shot near Arbroath." 

 I saw these two specimens in his collection in June 1905. 



Buteo vulgaris, Leach. Common Buzzard. 



Resident. Common. Breeds. 



Owing to frequent confusion in the application of the names 

 "Gled" or "Glede" to Buzzard and Kite, applied in the old 

 Statistical Account, I often find it difficult, and sometimes impossible, 

 to locate records of these two species. Thus the old Sfatistkal 

 Account sometimes speaks of "two species of Glede or Kite." How- 

 ever, this remark does not apply strictly to Tay so much as to more 

 western districts, and the confusion does not tend to mix matters so 

 much in oui' present area as in some others. But what is worse than 

 these older errors of svnonymy, they are still rampant in the present 

 day, even among otherwise educated people, due to the error still 

 holding among shepherds and many keepers; and this makes it 

 often extremely difficult, especially for strangers to our Highlands 

 and Highlanders, to identify what is meant. Xo descriptions are of 

 use generally, as the shepherd may well not distinguish between a 

 tail "like a saumon's" and a tail "like a swallow's." A tail like a 

 saumon's^'' is far more like a salmon's and a Buzzard's than the tail of 

 a Kite ; and there is again an element of confusion speaking of 

 "Swallows" and of Martens. Indeed, some of our older ornitho- 

 logists are perhaps more to blame for confusions than the people 

 who follow these names. I have come across many instances of this 



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