190 



BIRDS. 



young were taken and sent to Scone Palace " ; and Col. Drummond 

 Hay had frequent opportunities of seeing one of them, an albino 

 AVhite-tailed Eagle, in confinement. Parents and young were "alike 

 of a pale dove colour or ash colour." 



It appears from the above notes that two pairs of Sea-Eagles 

 frequented the islands of Lochs Luydon and Baa, both of which 

 lochs drain towards the east by the Gower river to Rannoch and 

 Strath Tay via Loch Tummell, because there appears to have been 

 no knowledge of albino birds having come to Mr. Alston's notice, 

 and M'hich Col. Drummond Hay speaks of as inhabiting a tree-nest 

 on Loch Luydon, some years prior to his interview with Stewart, the 

 keeper. Xow, "the keepers on the other side,'" mentioned by 

 Mr. Alston, would be the keepers upon the grounds of the Black 

 Mount Deer-forest, and not keepers on the Moor of Eannoch 

 shootings, as I am personally acquainted with the marches between 

 the Black Mount and The Barracks shooting. Besides, the Loch Baa 

 nest is distinctly stated to have been "on a low rocky island," etc.. 

 whereas the Loch Luydon one was described as "on a tree on Loch 

 Luydon." 



I was residing at The Barracks, and deer-stalking over the ten- 

 mile reach of the wild Moor of Rannoch, east of the boundary-lines of 

 the Black Mount Deer-forest, in 1874. I also heard of the Eagle's 

 nest on a tree on an island of Loch Luydon. The tale was told to 

 me by my stalker, young John Macgregor, as told to him by older 

 men who remembered the fact well. And later, I received additional 

 evidence from one of these older men, who was our pony-man, 

 Duncan Campbell. He personally remembered their presence there, 

 but I cannot remember, nor do I appear to have any note of any 

 mention of the albino colour of the birds. But it is Cjuite likely that 

 my older informant placed little importance upon that, owing possibly 

 to his only being acquainted -with that one pair. The tale was told 

 to myseK and companions at the old "bothy "on the moor — some 

 ten miles from the shooting-lodge — and which still stands, and may 

 be looked for by those who are curious, to the left of the present 

 railway line, near the west end of the great expanse of the Moor of 

 Rannoch, and not two hundred yards from the present railway fence, 

 and about one and a half miles from the march with the Black 

 Mount Forest. 



Later on, I fished Loch Luydon for trout, and I saw the nest, 

 which was pointed out to me as that at one time occupied by the 

 Eagles. That same year in which I saw it in September, I was 



