BIRDS. 



191 



assured it had been taken possession of and occupied by a pair of 

 Herons. And there is now, as I write, a quite considerable colony 

 of the latter species. 



Xeedless to say, these two or three pairs of "White-tailed Eagles' 

 old haunts are now almost ancient history. 



In 1870, also, I can remember that a White-tailed Eagle, which 

 had been trapped or shot upon the grounds of Dalnaspidal shootings, 

 was, and perhaps still is, preserved in the shooting-lodge there. It 

 had been obtained some time previously by the then keeper. May 

 this have been a dejected remaining mate of one of the above- 

 mentioned eyries ? I think this is extremely probable, because the 

 lie of the country suggests it — a direct lead being obvious across the 

 country from the wilds of Eannoch by the precipitous sides and 

 trough of Loch Ericht, and by the pass of Dalwhinnie, Drumouchter, 

 and Dalnaspidal, through which defile the railway now runs. I can 

 remember driving over this high pass before the railway was projected 

 or formed, somewhere about the year 1S61 or 1862. I was in com- 

 pany again in 1872 — if I recollect aright — with Mr. Macgregor, keeper 

 at Drumouchter, who had at that time been some twenty years in 

 that service, when the presence of this specimen was announced, but 

 I never had the opportunity of seeing it. Macgregor never knew 

 of any White-tailed Eagles nesting on the sides of Loch Ericht, nor 

 of any frequenting it. This is not to be wondered at, because, except 

 at the extreme west end of Loch Ericht, the whole loch is profoundly 

 deep and not likely for the Sea-Eagles' requirements. 



Xor had the keeper at the west end of the loch, Mr. M'Cook, 

 ever seen a Sea-Eagle, though he knew well of the nesting of the 

 Black Eagle there. 



Macgregor was an observant and truthful man. He retired from 

 duty, after some forty years of service in the same locality, and 

 ended his days at Kingussie. 



I have little to relate of the presence of the Sea-Eagle in the 

 north-east of Strathmore, or any other part of our area, either past 

 or present. In 1866 Mr. Geo. Bruce fully records a female shot at Kin- 

 kell, near St. Andrews, on 29th September 1866, and this specimen "is 

 now in the College Museum" {Birds in and about St. Andrews, p. 71).^ 



And I find it included in a list made out for me by my friend 

 Mr. Canch of the specimens in that Museum, and it is also included 

 in Mr. W. Berwick's lists. 



' Once more let me say, that while accepting many of Mr. Bruce's records, I do not 

 lose sight of the fact that many others cannot be taken seriously. 



