Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/395

Rh their arrival, however, a third bird, presumably a male, appeared on the loch, and a fierce fight ensued between two of the birds, the result of which was that the eyrie was shortly afterwards deserted. Although no young appear to have been reared on the castle this year, a pair of Ospreys seem to have remained in the neighbourhood, as a bird was seen on the castle about the middle of June, and I myself saw a pair flying in circles high above the loch on July 6th. We saw an Osprey's nest which had been built in a large fir tree overhanging Loch Morlich, but were told by the keeper that it had not been used for the last five or six years. Another interesting bird we noticed was the Greenshank (Totanus canescens), of which species we saw three or four pairs, all of which, from their manners, appeared to have young. Their alarm-cry is exceedingly resonant, and they also utter a chattering note, like that of the Kestrel. We only saw one young bird, which I flushed from some marshy ground, while the parent birds were flying over my head, calling loudly. It was fairly strong on the wing, so the Greenshank must be rather an early breeder. This species often perches on trees; in fact, we saw them more often on the tops of small firs than on the ground. They seem, however, to have considerable difficulty in keeping their balance on trees, and probably only resort to them when they suspect danger. We met with several parties of Crested Tits (Parus cristatus), both in Rothiemurchus and Glenmore forests. They do not appear to be at all uncommon in the district, and when once we had learnt their call-note, we came across them nearly every day. The note to my ear sounds like a spluttering "ptur-r-r-r-re," rather low, and sometimes preceded by a shrill "zi-zi-zi." Some of the young had apparently just left the nest, and were being fed by the parents. We also saw several parties of Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra), consisting of both young and old birds, in Glenmore Forest, where they had probably been reared. The Common Sandpiper (Totanus hypoleucus) was particularly numerous on the shores of all the lochs which we visited, especially on Loch Morlich, on the banks of which we found two nests, each containing four eggs. This bird follows the streams well up into the mountains, and we saw them up to about 2000 feet above sea-level. We saw plenty of Black-headed Gulls (Larus ridibundus), either fishing on the lochs or following the plough like Rooks, and we found a colony of about two hundred pairs which were nesting on a marshy loch near Aviemore, where the nests were built among the reeds, and usually almost floating on the water. A great number of Oystercatchers (Hæmatopus ostralegus) breed on the banks of the river Spey, above Aviemore. The birds were exceedingly numerous and very noisy, and we found one nest with three eggs, and many others which only contained shells. The young birds on being handled feign death, drooping their necks and relaxing all their muscles, so that they appear quite limp