BIRDS. 



217 



Society during an excursion they made there in 1901. I merely 

 mention this, not as of great interest at present, but in case at some 

 future time there may be a more permanent occupation of the site. 

 The excursion was undertaken on 23rd September 1901 (vide Proc. 

 Xat. Hist. Soc. Glas., 1903, p. 236). 



In the north of our area there is an early notice by Yarrell 

 (British Birds, 1st edition, vol. ii. p. 438), under "Cranes." He 

 tells us that "Cranes were given to King James v. of Scotland, 

 and the Queen-Mother, on the banks of Lochaine in G-len Tilt." 

 These " Cranes " were most assuredly Herons. Even at the present 

 day, Herons are often spoken of as "Crans" or Cranes — pro- 

 nouncing the a short. It is not difficult, therefore, to understand 

 how Yarrell came to be mistaken by the local use of the word as 

 in old charters. 



Other Heronries are in Strathearn and in Atholl, "the latter," 

 says Col. Drummond Hay, "in an old line of beeches on the Hill of 

 TuUoch — since, however, cut down ; and they shifted to some old 

 Scots firs, but not in such numbers as formerly." 



Mr. D. Dewar relates that there used to be a Heronry at 

 Taymouth, but the birds were destroyed as being destructive to 

 fish. He once saw a Sparrow-Hawk strike down a Heron into 

 Loch Tay. 



In the south-west a few pairs were left only of a larger colony at 

 Loch Dochart, when Gray wrote his Birds of the JFest of Scotland, and 

 I received a clutch of eggs from there a few years afterwards. 



I have not been able to ascertain what Heronries, if any, exist 

 along the sides of Loch Earn : but Godfrey told me he heard of none, 

 and only saw one solitary bird at Lochearnhead. 



In our Fife-Tay portion of the area, as I am informed by Col. 

 H. W. Feilden, and according to Mr. James Keddie's information, 

 " Herons nested in Airdrie Wood, not far from Crail, as late as 

 1842" ; and Col. Feilden considers that it must have been at a later 

 date than that before they were dispersed, "because, now and then 

 Herons fished in the little burn that runs through the garden and 

 past the house of Cambo as late as 1847; and when I asked my 

 father whence they came, he told me 'from Airdrie Wood,' where 

 several pairs nested." 



AVe are told, however, by Mr. J. E. Harting in his list of 

 Heronries (ZooL, 1872, p. 3268), that this Heronry at Kinnaird had 

 by that time become extinct " in consequence of the old spruce-trees 

 having been cut down," but the exact date is not supplied. He also 



