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200 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY<br />
PTARMIGAN.<br />
RED GROUSE.<br />
Resident, but confined to the higher hills.<br />
Breeds throughout the county, frequenting the hills.<br />
BLACK GROUSE. Same as preceding. I notice it increases rapidly<br />
in numbers where young plantations are formed.<br />
CAPERCAILLIE.<br />
Breeds in most of the higher woods.<br />
WATER RAIL. Not often met with, but breeds in various localities.<br />
It is a very shy bird, which accounts in some measure for its<br />
being unobserved.<br />
LAND RAIL. Reaches the shire about the first or second week in<br />
May. The bird seems to call more during a shower : at least<br />
it seems to me to do so.<br />
MOOR HEN. Common on all the burn sides and about the waterways.<br />
I have seen some quite tame, and at present know of<br />
several pairs that breed in gardens quite close to dwellinghouses.<br />
One severe winter lately a number fed daily with my<br />
poultry. This year I saw a nest fully eight feet from the<br />
ground.<br />
COOT. Not so common as the last named, but nests wherever<br />
suitable sites occur.<br />
GOLDEN PLOVER. On the moorland and higher ground this bird<br />
brings out its brood. During winter they are often seen in the<br />
fields, and numbers seek the seaside annually.<br />
RINGED PLOVER. Although I understand the bird breeds over a<br />
rather wide area, I have never seen it unless about the sea<br />
margin.<br />
LAPWING. Extremely common, when one considers the vast quantity<br />
of eggs collected by boys all over the shire. These eggs are<br />
bought by local shop-keepers and sent in to town merchants,<br />
who again dispatch them to London market.<br />
TURNSTONE. Sometimes observed inland, but more frequently<br />
about the sea-shore. Not very common even there.<br />
OYSTER-CATCHER. To be met occasionally amongst the rocks and<br />
at Stonehaven and elsewhere. Breeds on many of the<br />
shingle<br />
inland streams.<br />
WOODCOCK. I see numbers every fall, and learn of others being<br />
shot in various localities. It is a regular breeder in the shire,<br />
COMMON SNIPE. Very widely known, but still very sparingly distributed<br />
about the marshy banks and flats of the burns. It<br />
nests in most of the parishes.<br />
JACK SNIPE. H. writes it down as a winter visitor. M. secured a<br />
specimen last year at Auchinblae.
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