198 



BIRDS. 



Feilden : " 14th May 1856. — When in Perth to-day I was shown a 

 Kite, in the shop of Ansell the gunmaker, just sent in from Rannoch " 

 (H. W. F. in lit, 12th January 1905). 



My friend Mr. James Davidson informed me that when he was 

 shooting near Pitlochry he was told by the keeper {custos!) at 

 Urrard that there were a pair going about, and that "rt?/ the keepers 

 ■were after them for the feathers ! " {in lit., January 3, 1905). 



Millais, however, writing me later, says : "Up to the year 1879, 

 Messrs. Anderson, fishing-tackle makers, formerly of Dunkeld, and 

 now of Edinburgh, used to obtain one or two Kites annually from 

 Perthshire, which they used for fly-dressing. One of the last killed 

 in Perthshire is now in my possession. It was killed in 1879." 



I have since been informed that the true Gled or Kite occurs still 

 occasionally at one locality near the Tay valley, but at the same 

 time my informant told me that he had never known of its nesting 

 there, though he had been a long time keeper at the same place. 



The Messrs. Anderson have sent me particulars of the last they 

 obtained from the district; and these agree with the above notes 

 contributed by Mr. Millais. 



Faico candicans, Gmel. Greenland Falcon. 

 Faico islandus, Gmel Iceland Falcon. 



The remarks under these two Falcons, except where the records are 

 quite definite, cannot be inserted now after so long a time. We may 

 accept as certain two as specimens of the former, viz. that at Rannoch, 

 and that at Foss on Loch Tummell. 



Don's record may be correct, but under the circumstance that it 

 was only seen by him, as given below, I cannot feel certain to which 

 species it belonged. 



And the one reported at Drumouchter I have been unable to trace 

 any further history of, although Macgregor said it was very white, 

 and may have been, from his description, another Greenland Falcon. 



The others mentioned may have been Greenland or Iceland Falcons. 



I now give these records in detail. Col, Drummond Hay tells us 

 of a Greenland Falcon which was identified as such by Mr. Hancock 

 as follows : "A very fine female of the second year's plumage was 

 shot on the 17th May 1888 by Mr. John Donald, gamekeeper to 

 Sir Robert Menzies, by whom it was presented to the Perthshire 

 Museum of Natural Sciences, where it now is." 



Mr. R. Gray is our authority for an immature male obtained at 



