2 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



THE STARLING IN SCOTLAND, ITS INCREASE 

 AND DISTRIBUTION. 



BY J. A. HARVIE-BROWN, F.R.S.E. 



PLATE I. 



OUR British Ornithologists have long been aware that the 

 subject of our present remarks has had a history, and that 

 its increase and extension of range present some interesting 

 and phenomenal facts. An examination of already published 

 accounts in great measure renders this evident, as we hope to 

 show in somewhat more detailed manner than has hitherto 

 been done. We desire to place on record a consecutive 

 account of its steps of advance, before it becomes too late to 

 gather up and arrange the more important minutiae which 

 are at our disposal in the year of grace 1 894. Were this 

 not done, points might be missed ; and besides, future workers 

 find their time taken up by traversing imperfectly worked 

 ground in the past. We hope then to afford a new starting- 

 point by this paper. Nevertheless, of the incompleteness of 

 our attempt, perhaps no one can be more fully aware than 

 ourselves. 



Introduction of the Species. If any important introduc- 

 tions of this bird have ever taken place anywhere in Scot- 

 land, we have been unable to trace them ; but we throw out 

 the hint for other inquirers, as we do know that the Starling, 

 just according to its rarity, was more kept as a pet-bird 

 some forty years ago than it is now. 



Alternating Waves of Advance and Retreat. Some curious 

 statistics appear in evidence of what we may be allowed to 

 term alternating waves of advance and retreat. If, as appears 

 from our earlier records, the Starling was at one time more 

 abundant in the barren portions of our northern districts, such as 

 Shetland, Orkney, north of Caithness, and the Outer Hebrides, 

 than it was in the east and south-east and middle districts 

 of Scotland, or the well-wooded areas of the south, there 

 seems to be some reason for carefully considering Whence 

 originally came the Starlings which peopled our northern 

 portions of Scotland ; and what bearing this distribution 



