326 



BIRDS. 



1879 (Small's Register, 1857 to 1883. I have since got the Registers 

 between 1893 and the present time). 



Millais considers it justly a regular autumn visitor on the coast. 



The earliest habitation within, or close to, the borders of the Tay 

 area is, I think, certainly as follows. Looking back into the history 

 of the Greenshank in Tay, or near its borders, I find that the nest 

 and four eggs were recorded as long ago as 1853, when Mr. Peter 

 Robertson, the head-forester in the Black Mount Deer-forest, sent 

 two eggs to Mr. Edge, and he had to give the other two of the same 

 clutch 'Ho another gentleman" (vide Ooth. Wolleyana^ part iii. p. 184, 

 § 3586). That they had bred there previous to that date there is 

 internal evidence to show, but for how long it would be now difficult 

 to say. Mr. Peter Robertson appeared to have been aware of their 

 presence, though he failed to discover their nest in 1852, as in a 

 letter to Mr. Edge he says : "It beats me to find any of the Green- 

 shanks' nests." Again in 1854 he was unsuccessful, and also in 1855, 

 but he got the eggs again in 1856 {op. cif., p. 139, § 3619), when a 

 clutch of four was got on the 28th May ; and, writing to Mr. Edge 

 (or Mr. Wolleyl), he relates that these were "taken in the forest at a 

 place called Leitbeg, near a little loch on the moors. " ^ 



Again, in my own egg-book, of the year 1867, I find the entry as 

 follows : " P. 23, e. — Two eggs of four — from the collection of the 

 late Dr. Dewar, Glen Orchy, Black Mount Deer-forest, Argyll. 

 Nest of four, two of which were sent to the late Mr. John Wolley. 

 Taken, and the bird shot by Dr. Dewar himself. May 16, 1856." 

 Now these may have been erroneously dated, and belong to the same 

 clutch as that mentioned above in Ooth. WolL; but the discrepancy 

 would almost seem to be too great both as regards dates and 

 locality.2 



Otherwise, i.e. if they belong to a different lot, then there is no 

 trace of them in Mr. Wolley's collections, now with Professor 

 Newton at Cambridge, nor as having been obtained in Glen Orchy ; 

 at least there is no entry in Wolley's egg-book, nor in his registers 

 nor catalogues. These contain no entries of Greenshanks from Black- 

 mount in 1856 (A. N. in lit., 16th August 1905). And Professor 



^ That is, the moors of Rannoch and the forest. I have not been able to locate this 

 place. 



2 As regards the latter, however, subject to further inquiry. These eggs are entered 

 as received by me 16th August 1867, and to have passed afterwards, and in the same 

 year, to the late Mr. Robert Gray, I having obtained, by this time, eggs of my own 

 taking, in another part of Scotland. 



