BIRDS. 



207 



October 1904) that a Lesser Kestrel, a female, was shot in Forfarshire and 

 the eggs taken, and that they passed into the hands of a London gentleman 

 who bought them from the person who got them, cannot be seriously enter- 

 tained without more definite data, and of course must remain within square 

 brackets. I have not in the meantime been able to trace the possession.] 



Pandion haliaetus (L.). Osprey. 



Old Gaelic name, lolair uisge, i.e. " the Water Eagle." 



Occasional. Very rare visitant. Has bred in Tay, but became 

 extinct almost as soon as it had occupied a fine new site on Loch 

 Ordie (see infra). 



The old Statistical Account mentions " Eagles of three kinds " in 

 several places. 



Col. Drummond Hay spoke of the Osprey as "Once, no doubt, 

 a denizen of all our large lochs and streams ; now only an occasional 

 visitant. It is said to have bred regularly for some time on Loch 

 Rannoch, and probably had its eyrie on Loch Luydon" (but see 

 further on). 



Mr. Malloch, of Perth, told Col. Drummond Hay of one which 

 had been lately killed on Loch Tay. This was no doubt the same 

 bird which comes to be again mentioned immediately, and which 

 dates, as will be seen, 1870. 



In our chronology the above mentioned was trapped by Mr. D. 

 Dewar at Finlarig, on Loch Tay. Mr. Dewar has described to me 

 the method of the capture, which certainly exhibited an ingenuity 

 worthy of a better cause, and I have no desire to repeat it here. 

 The date of this was about 1870. 



In 1876 Mr. Whittaker, during a visit to Rannoch, recorded 

 seeing a "magnificent Osprey sitting on a dead tree. It flew off, 

 and up the loch," we are told, "till lost to sight." This was on the 

 20th June 1876. 



Now, I was residing at The Barracks in September and October 

 1874, but I could hear nothing definite regarding the presence of 

 the Osprey anywhere in the district. It is true I have some con- 

 fused facts or statements which I may refer to again. 



Leading up to these, first, I wish to refer to some accounts of the 

 Osprey in the adjoining area of Argyll, which, though of course 

 outside our boundaries, nevertheless are, I think, deserving of a 

 place in the continuity of my history of the bird in Scotland. 

 When Buckley and I wrote our volume on Argyll, we purposely 

 omitted much mention of the Osprey there ; but alas ! now our 



