BIRDS. 



185 



Pheasant chicks and a corresponding number of their heads, as well 

 as parts of the egg-shells {Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glas., vol. iv. p. 145). 

 Mr. Henderson does not give a precise date for this 1866 specimen, 

 but presumably it must have been a summering bird, and not an 

 autumn visitant. For a fuller account I beg to refer my readers 

 to the above-quoted earlier record. 



It is quite possible the Honey-Buzzard may have bred in Tay 

 or Strathmore, as we know from Macgillivray that it had bred in 

 Dee on at least two occasions, and we know also that the autumn 

 migrants of the species for the most part follow the east-coast line, 

 and we also have the fact of its having nested in East Ross — as 

 duly related in our Moray Fauna {loc. cit., p. 66).^ 



The latest record I find is that of one obtained in Forfarshire 

 (Annals Soot. Nat. Hist., 1903, p. 49). 



Aquila chrysaetus (L.). Golden Eagle, 



Old Gaelic name, lolair dubh, i.e. "The Leader," or "He that 

 showeth the way." Duhh, black. 



Resident. Breeds. Abundant. Greatly on the increase of late. 



Pennant tells us that the "Black Eagle, or Ring- tailed Eagles," 

 were "a few years ago so numerous in Rannoch that the Commis- 

 sioners of the forfeited estates offered a reward of 5s. each for 

 every one that was destroyed. In a little time such numbers were 

 brought in that the Honourable Board reduced the premium to 

 3s. 6d." 



Going back to some early records, I find that there is abund- 

 ance of evidence of the Golden Eagle in the first half of the nine- 

 teenth century. Thereafter they became much rarer, until about 

 1870 to 1880 I believed that I could very nearly count all the 

 eyries then really occupied, and I came to the conclusion — 

 whether rightly or wrongly — that one hundred breeding pairs of 



1 I observe that in our Mokay Fauna, vol. ii. p. 66, I have allowed a misprint to 

 pass through proof, viz. •' Aberfeldy " for ** Abergeldie." Aberfeldy is in Tay, and 

 Abergeldie is in Dee. 



I also observe that Seebohm makes no mention of last date of the Honey-Buzzard 

 nesting in Scotland, and indeed dismisses that country in about three lines as regards 

 the species, except that he acknowledges the fact that "formerly bred, etc." Yet, as 

 is his custom, he devotes whole pages to the habits and history of the species as 

 observed abroad, and in any country, by preference to giving the British distribution, 

 etc. I do not know whether this was due to carelessness or not, but the entire omission 

 of the Honey-Buzzard from the table of contents must surely have been so {A History of 

 British Birds, vol. i. p. 69). 



