BIRDS. 



241 



But by the date of 1880, at Loch Leven (Forth), where there 

 was a record for that same year of 1875, Millais calculated that there 

 were at least one hundred pairs with young, and they have been "in 

 increasing numbers since then " (J. G. M., in lit). Mr. Evans gives 

 many early accounts from other parts of Scotland, going back in the 

 history of the Tufted Duck as a Scottish species, and quotes Don for 

 Forfar thus : Anas fuligula, Tufted Duck, in the lakes." Others of 

 these earlier records relate to the species both to the north and to 

 the south of our present area, e.g. Low-Pennant for Orkney ; 

 Macgillivray, 1837 (pp. 302-306), for Forth ; and he quotes Osborne 

 for the statement that "it is almost certain that the Tufted Pochard 

 breeds in the vicinity of Wick, etc." This dates 1862, so the question 

 arises : if this was the first true record of its having nested, was the 

 subsequent dispersal towards the south, and not, as I have 

 endeavoured to show, from the south northwards 1 Osborne's 

 evidence, however, is only presumptive, and I think mine bears 

 greater weight, as it is built upon a long series of dates all over the 

 country, collected with every care. 



Returning to the area at present under more direct treatment, we 

 find that they bred again on Methven Loch in 1878 (Rowley Jex 

 Long, Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, 25th February 1879). Millais 

 first heard of their breeding in Perthshire about 1877 (Methven 

 Loch again), and a male and a female were shot at the same place in 

 1878, and are in the Perth Museum {and. Col. Drummond Hay, in lit. 

 to me). The first nest which the Museum received was from 

 Methven Loch again, in June 1888. Mr. Malloch claims earlier dates 

 for their nesting on Methven Loch, but Mr. R. Jex Long writing to 

 me says : "I received the eggs from Mr. Malloch. They were got on 

 Methven Loch in a Swan's nest, and he said it was the only one he 

 had seen. I understood from him that he had never pre^-iously seen 

 or heard of the species breeding in Scotland" (Annals Scot. Nat. Hist., 

 1896, p. 15). 



By 1896 they were breeding at Loch Lindores, and in all probability 

 were doing so at a much earlier date, not to mention many other 

 sites on the south side of the Lomonds and beyond our present area. 



To summarise the facts once more as shortly as possible : It 

 appears that Loch Leven and Perthshire has been the main centre of 

 their colonising Scotland, with all due respect to these early isolated 

 records to the north and south {vide ante). And the earliest nest on 

 Loch Leven appears to have been one of which Mr. Evans gives 

 particulars, viz. in 1872 {Annals Scot. Nat. Hist., 1896, p. 151); 



Q 



