BIRDS. 



193 



I have had reported to me, viz. one obtained in Forfarshire in 1825, 

 and seen by Fenton, a well-known taxidermist of Edinburgh, who 

 was not a man likely to make any mistake. All very early records 

 of "Goshawks," however, must be relegated to oblivion, with the 

 very few exceptions we are well aware of. 



Dr. Dewar simply — no doubt quoting from the above — marks it 

 " very rare." 



J. G. Millais has two Goshawks in his collection, which he writes 

 me he obtained in 1883 ; and he believes, as informed by Mr. Boath, 

 the headkeeper at Rohallion, that they bred there for several years 

 previously. Millais adds: "And it is a pity he destroyed them, as 

 they are probably the last pair that bred in the country. Rohallion, 

 with its great craggy fir woods, was to my knowledge the last strong- 

 hold of both Goshawks and Kites." The above record has not to his 

 or my knowledge been given anywhere before. The part where 

 these two birds were obtained is a large old wood of firs and larch, 

 just the sort of place where such rarities might be expected to find 

 a final sanctuary. Millais goes on to say : " Stuart, the head- 

 keeper on Kinnaird (since deceased), also used to speak of having 

 killed Goshawks about the same time ; and doubtless a pair or two 

 frequented the whole range of his long forest, which stretched from 

 Rohallion to Trochray, and again up the main valley of the Tay, 

 past Dunkeld and Dalguise, as far as Logierait (Ballinluig)." — See old 

 Statistical Maps, scale 1" to the mile, sheets 47, 48, and 55. The 

 above is an interesting item in the history of the Goshawk in 

 Scotland ; always supposing that, in the case of Stuart's statement, 

 he was not confounding this bird with the Peregrine. In any case, 

 however, Millais' two birds killed on Rohallion are of great interest. 

 James Keay, who was keeper at Murthly, however, never remembered 

 either Goshawks or Kites upon that estate, which is adjoining. He 

 was keeper there for forty years. Millais thinks the birds kept 

 pretty closely to the range of hills on the west side of the Tay. 



I have the record of a Goshawk killed in Kemback Wood, near 

 St. Andrews, in 1842 { fide Mr. Berwick, of Pathcondie, Monimail), but 

 what became of the specimen in question I am not aware. However, 

 one certainly was obtained not very far distant, viz. at Elie (Forth) 

 in 1877, and I have seen a sketch of it, done by Mr. W. Evans from 

 the bird when it was in the possession of Mr. Small, Edinburgh. ^ 



^ Col. Drummond Hay was in error when he said that this Elie bird was recorded 

 by Turnbull in his Birds of East Lothian, because, as Mr. Evans points out, that book 

 was issued ten years before the said bird was killed (cf. Scot. Nat., 1886, p. 366). 



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