Volume 9 - Electric Scotland

4 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY
time drawn up, one list being applicable
to the North and
the other to the South of Scotland. The disadvantages of
having, perhaps, totally different groups of birds protected
within adjacent counties having practically the same
physical configuration were sufficiently conspicuous and the
;
County Council of Fife, among others, adopted Lord Balfour's
scheme, with the relative schedule of birds applicable to the
southern half of Scotland. The adoption of this plan involved
the repeal of the Tentsmuir Order of the previous year, with
its very much longer list of protected birds ;
but the General
Order does all that is required, as well for Tentsmuir as for
the rest of the county ; though, as it may be hoped that our
breeding lists will be extended as the universal system of
egg-gathering hitherto in vogue is gradually checked, it
might be well to add to the lists from time to time any new
birds whose claims to protection may emerge. Already, in
fact, the addition of the Pintail to our list is
emphatically
called for ;
and the Arctic Tern, which the writer would
have liked to see included in the original list, might be
added at the same time. But if the lists are thus subject to
from this
occasional revision, great things may be hoped
well-considered scheme. The Act, however, when it has been
adopted, must be properly supported and enforced, and not
permitted to become a dead letter in the district without
;
support and assistance from game preservers and landowners
generally, its
power for good will be much restricted.
On the northern ' third ' of Tentsmuir, where the Act
has been thus backed up, there has been an undoubted improvement.
Several Eider Ducks' nests may now be found,
without difficulty, where one was to be found before ;
and of
those found this year, all but two, which were destroyed by
the heavy rainfall, were successfully hatched. Golden Plovers
have been more numerous this summer than they have been
for years ; moreover, they
all left the moor soon after the
middle of July, instead of lingering on into August as they
would probably have done had even the earlier eggs been
gathered. This year
it was the early eggs that were hatched,
and long before August both young and old had gone elsewhere.
Ducks of two or three kinds nested in most unusual
numbers, and among them was at least one pair of Shovellers