254 



BIRDS. 



breeding somewhere in that county regularly." However that may 

 have been, the above stands as the first record for Tay, and I believe 

 the second for Scotland. ^ 



In the following year I conveyed Dresser to the spot on Loch 

 Ericht where the above nest was found, guided by the instructions 

 given to me in another of Mr. Macgregor's letters, and had the 

 pleasure of finding plenty of the down in the nest-hole ; but alas ! 

 the bad name attaching to the birds had already induced one 

 Macpherson, shepherd, to take and to destroy most of the eggs. 

 We got wind of this, and called at Macpherson's house, a few miles 

 further along the lochside, and again we were lucky in saving one 

 of the eggs taken from the nest only a day or so before. Lucky, 

 yet unlucky ! When, in 1881, Feilden and I were at Loch Ericht 

 fishing, we found these Goosanders had fled the old haunt, but 

 we saw either one or two pairs nearer to the west end of the loch. 



N.B. — It may be remembered that the next we hear of these 

 birds was what Col. Drummond Hay said about seeing birds on Loch 

 Luydon and on Loch Rannoch, supra. 



Here ends, I think, as complete a history as is needed of the 

 first recorded Goosander's nest in Tay. 



Millais says nothing particularly as to these birds breeding lower 

 down the Tay, but says : " A variable visitor to the district in winter 

 and spring. Sometimes the Tay and Loch Leven (Forth) are full of 

 Goosanders, and in another year not one is to be seen." 



And Millais' notes are so far borne out by the following from 

 Mr. Charles Mackintosh, speaking of Strathbraan and district around 

 Dunkeld at the date of June 1905. He writes : " Goosander — I have 

 seen a stuffed male got on the Tay sixty years ago. A very few 

 pairs now on the Tay in winter and spring." 



During a drive along the right bank of the river Tay between 

 Aberf eldy and Kenmore, in May 1 905, I saw two pairs, or at least 

 two males and one female, upon a shallow smooth reach of the river 

 a little above Aberfeldy. We have seen that these birds have been 

 known to nest in the neighbourhood of Kenmore and lower end of 

 Loch Tay by the year 1890 {ante, p. 250, aud. D. Dewar). 



Following close upon this observation, I have the information 



^ Argyll claims the first record, but, curiously enough, that was also in 1871. That 

 was in August of that year, when Mr. J. Graham, of James Street, Liverpool, recorded 

 seeing two old Goosanders, accompanied by seven young, upon Loch Awe, whilst he 

 was fishing there. His letter was published in the Field newspaper of July 29, 1871, 

 and further account in the same of August 12, 1871. 



