8 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



most instances, and is included in lists from Biggar and 

 Douglas. In Renfrew : " The Starling regularly breeds," 

 and remains all the year, and is considered a "regular visitor" 

 in Paisley. In Neilston : "The Starling, though rare for 

 many years, has again appeared in considerable numbers " 

 (vol. viii. p. 320, 1843). In Dumbartonshire only one record 

 occurs, in the parish of New Kilpatrick ; and for Stirlingshire 

 there is not a single record. In Clackmannan curiously, 

 however, we find that it "has become plentiful in the parish 

 of the same name as the county, being known to breed in the 

 steeple of the old church." 



Still rarer become the records in the north, in Perth and 

 up the Tay valley. Only two localities are named in all the 

 county : one in the parish of Bendochy, where flocks appear 

 in autumn and winter, and a pair bred for two years prior 

 to 1845 in elm trees at Cupar Grange; and another record is 

 from St. Madoes parish. Bendochy parish is in the extreme 

 east of Perthshire, and marches with Forfar, and is a low- 

 lying district of Strathmore. 



In Fifeshire, at Dunbog, we have the record : " It may 

 be worthy of notice that a pair of Starlings built their nest 

 and brought out their young last summer (1844?) in the 

 shrubbery at Dunbog House," and it is included among " rare 

 birds found occasionally " in Dunfermline parish. These are 

 the only records from Fife. 



It may appear at first blush that these printed records 

 of the "Old Statistical" and "New Statistical Accounts" 

 point to an advance northward and north-eastward from 

 " Solway," rather than an advance northward and north- 

 westward from " Tweed"; but we shall demonstrate further on, 

 we believe, that " Tweed " has really had almost as important 

 a role as " Solway " in the advance, though both, even after 

 uniting their forces between " Forth " and " Clyde," seemed to 

 have had greater difficulties to surmount on reaching 

 Stirlingshire, where the waves appear to have received some 

 considerable check to their northward progress, and that for 

 some years, as will be seen from our records about to be given. 



It is now our intention to continue the more minute 

 records of its advance, which we have been able to collect 

 by means of a special circular, and by correspondence all over 



