517 
IX. 
OPtXITlIOLOGICAL XOTES FROM SCOTLAND. 
By J. H. Gurney, Jun., F.Z.S. 
Read 'I’jth February, 1883. 
iiiE following Notes refer to a fortnight spent very pleasantly at a 
shooting-box in the valley of Clova, near Kirriemuir in Forfarshire. 
Ihe height of the valley above the sea is from five to eight hundred 
feet, and the mountains adjoining from one to three thousand feet. 
Ihe higher of these are well suited to Ptarmigan, which, with a few 
Dotterel and Golden I’lover, live at a much higher range than the 
Grouse. 
Golden Eagles frequent these lofty solitudes, seeking often for 
the Afountain Karo, but their prey occasionally consists of such 
small game as Beetles.* There were two nests this summer at the 
head of the valley ; one of them exactly opposite the drawing-room 
Avindow at Glendole, and I was told the young could be seen in it 
with a telescope. The old deerstalker said that they more often 
than not got off only one young one. To use his own expression, 
the young ones “harked like a puppy.” They had left the 
neighbourhood long before I got there, and I had to content myself 
A'ith one fine view ot an old bird, and a more distant inspection of 
the nests through a telescope. They were not so inaccessible but 
that any one who went at the right time of the year might be easily 
lowered into them with a rope. A short time ago the deerstalker, 
having been requested by a person to get him some very rare plant* 
Avhich grew only on the crag near the Eagle’s nest, found himself 
assailed by the Eagle in a very ticklish position, and nearly shared the 
fate Avhich it is said often awaits Chamois attacked by a Lammergeyer. 
Other birds of prey are not very numerous. A pair of Peregrines 
nest every year at Glendole; and I got a brief view of a Kite, a bird 
which all the gillies agree in saying is now extremely rare. The 
* An unmistakable Eagle’s pellet contained multitudinous Beetles’ remains 
which had evidently been swallowed by the Eagle in some form or other. ' 
