II 2 TRANSACTIONS — PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
Ardeid^.— The Common Heron {Ardea cinerea) is generally 
distributed over our district, and I have found it nesting in various 
parts of the county. This spring I was informed of a fact which I 
never knew before—viz., that the Heron is almost entirely nocturnal 
in its habits. Yarrell alludes to its feeding late in the evening and 
early in the morning but the keeper at Earlshall told me that the 
Herons, which had their nests in some old Scotch fir trees, never 
commenced to feed their young until after sunset, and that, till sun¬ 
rise, they constantly flew to and from the sea, conveying sand eels to 
them. It is, according to Jerdon, “found throughout all Europe, 
Asia, and Africa,” and is very common in India. The Bittern 
[Botaurus stellaris) is a rare bird with us, but common in India; 
and I seldom went out for a day’s snipe shooting without killing one 
or two. They are excellent eating. 
Anserid^e— The Greylag Goose {Anser dnereus) is common in 
winter and spring in the Carse, and extends across the whole northern 
coasts of Europe and Asia where it breeds, to Spain and other south¬ 
ern countries where it spends the winter. The other species—the 
Bean Goose {A. segetum), the Pink-footed Goose {A. bradiyrhyiidius) 
—which I have shot on Tentsmuir,—that rare bird, the White-fronted 
Goose {A. albifro 7 is)^ and the Brent Goose {Bernida bre^ita), have, 
I believe, all been procured within our boundaries, and, like the last, 
are widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and America. 
CvGNiD^.—Of the Swans, the Mute Swan {Cygnus olor) is found in 
a semi-domesticated state on the lochs and rivers of Perthshire. I was 
much astonished by once seeing a pair flying across the Black Mount 
deer forest in the month of October, and the man who was with me 
told me they had frequented the district for years. 
Colonel Drummond Hay m.akes the following note regarding the 
Whooper (C. mtisicus)-. —“The Whooper was common enough in 
Perthshire every winter; but now there is such wholesale destruction 
of them on their breeding grounds in the north, by the natives, 
during the time they lose their feathers, that they have become few 
and far between, and will possibly very soon become extinct alto¬ 
gether.” I have never seen it myself in Perthshire; but shot one at 
Plythe, in Kent, during the severe winter of 1860-1. 
I once saw a flock of seven Swans flying in an easterly direction 
towards the Tay, over the prison, in the month of January, 1890; but 
as they were distinctly smaller than the Whooper I think they must 
have been Bewick’s Swan (C. Beivicki). The above Swans are found 
over the whole of Northern Europe and Asia, where they breed, and 
misrate to the south in winter. 
The Common Sheldrake {Tadoriia cornuta) is common along the 
tidal waters of the Tay, and breeds, I believe, in the hilly ground of 
