208 



BIRDS. 



reason for reticence has passed away. They are no longer there, 

 unless as rare passing migrants. 



It is worthy of mention that Mr. Selby in 1S33 related that two 

 pairs were known to nest on Loch Awe (Argyll), but were seldom 

 allowed even in those days to take off their young — "the young 

 hardly ever being permitted to fly " ; and he indicated that there 

 was a decrease evident in their numbers throughout Scotland. 



My friend Mr. Charles H. Alston,^ who has resided on the shores 

 of Loch Awe for a number of years, and has paid attention to the 

 natural history of the surrounding districts, and had opportunities 

 of meeting and knowing many of the keepers upon the Black Mount 

 Forest and his neighbours around Loch Awe, tells me he has not 

 been able to obtain any trustworthy accounts of the Osprey having 

 ever bred upon Loch Tulla, which is just outside the Tay area, and 

 he says : " As far as I am able to learn, they never bred there."'" He 

 continues : " I heard it said that the Osprey was at one time in the 

 habit of nesting on Loch na h'aclaise, but I am sorry I cannot give 

 you the date at which they were last seen there. The last Osprey 

 Finlay — the head-forester now on the Black Moimt Deer-forest — can 

 remember seeing, was on Loch Tulla eight years ago (he writes 

 under date of 31st January 1903 — i.e. say 1895). It came from the 

 east end of the loch, and when near the west end I saw her make 

 a sudden dive for the water, and catch a trout, and fly awav with 

 it." 



In 1879 two Ospreys were seen by me when fishing on Loch 

 Awe, and the boatman who accompanied Horn and myself told us 

 that they had nested "on a crag last year,'' which he pointed out to 

 us ; but we did not place great reliance upon the statement at the 

 time. This crag was not upon the shore of Loch Awe, but removed 

 some distance from it. Other older relations of the Osprey in 

 Argyll may be looked for in the works of Pennant, Macculloch, 

 Thornton ; and in Piural Sports, and Beauties of Scotland. 



Among trustworthy accounts of the occurrences of Ospreys on the 

 lochs of the Moor of Eannoch I have no reliable information as to their 

 haA-ing actually nested there, though I have had several very doubtful 

 relations of that ha\Tng taken place. 



Of their occurrence there I have already given Mr. Whittaker's 

 account supra, and to his may be added the following: — One was 

 shot on Loch Baa, and belonged to a Mr. Forbes, but was kept at 

 Inveroran Hotel. Mr. Hugh MacColl, keeper at Lochbuie, either 

 1 Brother of the late E. R. Alston, 



