Tufted Duck 
51 
Species spread slowly throughout Perthshire. A few pairs bred at Murthly in 1880, and 
increased in numbers every year, extending to the Black Loch, Taymount, and so on up 
the Tay Valley and down into Stirlingshire in every direction, where lakes with marshy 
edges and islands were to be found. Recently Mr. Saunders stated that it breeds in more 
than forty lochs in Scotland, but now it would be impossible to give a correct list of all the 
lakes and ponds where it breeds on the mainland of Scotland, for it is found everywhere 
except on the high tarns, where dense vegetation ceases and insect life is scarce. It breeds 
commonly in Berwickshire (A. Chapman, Bird Life of the Borders, 2nd ed. p. 92), Wigtown 
{A. S. N. H., 1901, p. 1 17), Galloway, Kinross, Stirling, Midlothian, Argyleshire, *' Dee " area 
(Sim, p. 149), Ross-shire, and is very numerous in Caithness. 
It is not within the scope of this work to give a detailed account of the growth of any 
new movement on the part of the diving ducks, but rather to describe their life history and 
their range at the present time. In consequence I must refer my readers who are anxious 
to trace the complete history of the spread of the Tufted Duck in Scotland to such papers 
as the following: "Notes on the Tufted Duck," by William Evans {Annals Scot. Nat. 
Hist., 1896, p. 148); for further statistics, Annals Scot. Nat. Hist. Jan. 1896, to which 
there is added a good map showing the distribution in 1896; " Historical Paper {Proc. of 
the Royal Physical Soc. of Edinburgh, vol. xiii. p. 194); the various books on the local 
Faunal Areas of Scotland, by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley. 
The species now breeds in Tiree and North Uist, where I found females and young at 
Balranald in 1899, and is common in South Uist and Benbecula. (See also A . S. N. H., 
1903, p. 245, and A. S. N H, 1907, pp. 83, 213.) 
Orkneys. — Formerly rare, but now a regular winter visitor, especially to Rousay, Lochs 
Stenness and Harray, and the fresh waters of Sanday. The Tufted Duck was first found to 
breed in Orkney by myself, when I shot a female and found the nest and young on an 
island in Loch Stenness, July 1888 (Fauna of the Orkney Islands, p. 176). 
Shetlands. — A regular winter visitor, but so far has not been recorded as breeding, 
although numbers have often been seen on Loch Spiggie in June and July. These were 
most probably immature non-breeding birds. 
Ireland. — The spread of the Tufted Duck as a breeding species is as well marked in 
Ireland as in England and Scotland. As early as 1877 was noticed as breeding on 
Lough Erne, and Mr. Porter-Porter tells me it now nests in considerable numbers there. 
In 1882 Sir R. Payne-Gallwey mentions it as breeding in the following localities: Lough 
Neagh, and the neighbouring Lough Beg ; Mount Louise, in Monaghan ; and the great 
Shannon lakes, &c. Since 1890, Messrs. Ussher and Warren {Birds of Ireland, pp. 206-207) 
mention it as breeding in Kerry, Cork, Clare, Tipperary, Westmeath, Longford, Ros- 
common, Sligo, Leitrim, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Armagh, Antrim, Londonderry. Up to 
the date of publication of the Birds of Ireland, in the year 1900, in which particulars of 
the breeding range are given, the authors had not noticed the species as breeding in Leinster, 
south and east of Westmeath, Co. Waterford, Eastern Tipperary, Connaught, west of the 
Shannon, Lough Arrow in Sligo, and Co. Donegal. They also note its absence in 
Loughs Gill and Melvin. 
The species now breeds in Donegal, and in Mr. Ussher's latest list (1908), he says, " Its 
eggs and nestlings are now found in many counties, including Kerry (1896), and Lough 
