200 



BIRDS. 



his holding the Isle of Man of the Crown of England." This was 

 given by the Duke of Atholl, and was intended with reference to the 

 falconer's term, "the Isle of Man breed, or true game-kind," and was 

 doubtless done to show the king that the true breed could be got 

 also in Atholl. ^ 



There can be no doubt of the former great abundance of these 

 noble Falcons all over Scotland in every suitable site. And even 

 now, in 1904, it is far from being a decadent species, and long may 

 it remain at least very far off extinction ! 



It was so abundant that Col. Drummond Hay expressed his 

 appreciation of the fact no longer ago than 1880: "Thus 

 Craig-y-barns at Dunkeld, Kinnoull, and Moncreiffe cliffs, and many 

 other places, had their occupants. Indeed there was not a rock or a 

 cliff suitable for the purpose of nesting and rearing their young that 

 a pair of Peregrines did not take up their quarters in, and would still 

 do so if allowed." So much, then, for their status in, say, 1880. 



As I have said, it is still in 1904-5 too common to require 

 minutely detailed accounts ; yet, as Mr. Horn truly says, " The 

 Peregrine is much rarer than it used to be," i.e. in the north-west. 



In the east of Strathmore it is resident but not common, as 

 Mr. Milne informs me ; nor can we expect it to be so, except at the 

 comparatively few places which are really suitable. One is mentioned 

 as having been shot in Drumtochty Glen, which has been preserved 

 in the Castle collection. There is a passage in the Black Book of 

 Kincardineshire, which was published privately by the Spalding Club 

 (1879), and is now rarely to be obtained, which passage I think is 

 worthy of being reproduced. "Fowlsheugh is noted for being the 

 breeding-place of that noblest bird of prey, the Peregrine Falcon, of 

 which each season a single pair have their nest in the rock, and 

 never more, in accordance with the maxim adopted by these birds, 

 ' to suffer no brother near their throne ' ; and if one of the pair 

 happens any one year to be killed, it is observed that its place never 

 fails to be supplied next year " (see Sim's Dee). 



Mr. Milne informed me (9th June 1897) that three young were 

 taken from the eyrie at Muchalls on Wednesday morning by Mr. 

 M . This is, I understand, only an alternative site. 



^ The above calls to remembrance a somewhat similar misnomer, viz. the name 

 given to our old Scotch terriers by a "discoverer" of the breed, who promptly called 

 them " Aberdeen terriers," and thereby secured a good-going sale for them in many 

 parts of England, Personally, I have no objections to trinomials, provided a geographical 

 value be expressed, but the above is a bad, though typical, result of calling things 

 " nonsense names." 



