210 



BIRDS. 



As before mentioned, I visited this island and found the remains 

 of the Heron's nest in the autumn of 1874. As my friend Mr. Chas. 

 H. Alston, who has taken considerable trouble to get at the truth of 

 these accounts of Ospreys nesting within the confines of the Black 

 Mount Deer-forest, says: "This whole chain of lochs contains, 

 for the most part, quite small trout, and would scarcely meet the 

 requirements of a pair of Ospreys and their young, thus rendering 

 the likelihood of their occupation still less probable." That there are 

 large trout in Loch Luydon I am aware, but I do not think these 

 exist in numbers sufficient to induce Ospreys to frequent any of the 

 lochs of the entire chain, even those far up in the quiet grounds of the 

 Black Mount sanctuary. 



The Loch Baa and Loch Luydon sites were the eyries of White- 

 tailed Eagles to the exclusion of Ospreys, as I believe to have been 

 correctly stated both by Col. Drummond Hay and the late E. E. 

 Alston, whether by more than one pair must, I think, remain un- 

 certain. 



It has been currently reported that the late Mr. John Colquhoun 

 was at one or other of these two places, in order to shoot one of the 

 Eagles, and came there with that intention ; but I am assured by my 

 friend. Col. Allan Colquhoun, that his father only shot one Sea-Eagle 

 in his life, and that was the one near Cape Wrath, and which I have 

 mentioned before in my last volume. Moreover, Col. Allan Colquhoun 

 also informed me that his father never shot an Osp'ey except one uimi 

 Loch Lomond. 



I have the note that the Osprej'' is an occasional visitor to Fife, 

 which I have little doubt is the case, but I cannot at present take note 

 of 3iiij actual and definite records. 



Going now to the farthest east of our present area, Mr. J. Milne 

 informs me of one which was caught in a pole-trap on Delavaird Moss 

 "a fewj'ears ago " {in lit., 8th April 1896) ; and in the following year, 

 1897, Mr. Nichol Simpson relates that he watched an Osprey "fishing 

 Glensaugh Loch on the 15th May 1897," when, as he describes it, 

 " it dived to the water. The male Goose (Canada Goose) would fly 

 direct at it and drive it off" for a time " {Annals Scot. Nat. Hist., 1899, 

 p. 198) ; but there seems still to be, in reserve, a considerable doubt 

 expressed as to whether this was not a large Gull. 



And now comes the saddest part of my tale. 



An account of the nesting of Ospreys upon Loch Ordie, not far 

 removed from Dunkeld, in 1887, has been told by Col. Campbell 

 in the Scot. Nat., 1887-8, p. 347, which is rather sickening to read. 



