I 4 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



of Menteith, as we are informed by the proprietor, Robert 

 Graham, Esq., "a very prodigious increase has been going on 

 ever since I returned home twenty-one years ago (say 1871). 

 The earliest nest I knew of was about the year 1838 in the 

 hollow of an oak tree. The shrubs around the house last 

 wm ter 1890-91 gave shelter to thousands. In the ex- 

 ceptionally severe winter of that season they never left 

 possibly owing to equal severity in England. They have 

 indeed almost ceased to migrate, except short distances from 

 all directions to roost." 



Around Callander, Mr. J. Buchanan-Hamilton of Leny 

 speaks of their increase within the last ten or twelve years, 

 but has no notes of first appearance of birds or nesting. He 

 adds : " My impression is that during these threescore years I 

 have seen them come and go in waves as it were sometimes 

 several here, sometimes none." Again : " My impressions are 

 that they come to us from the Lowlands, and that they did 

 not penetrate in this locality much farther into the Highlands 

 than Leny." Mr. Buchanan-Hamilton attributes " their in- 

 creased numbers and the permanency of their residence here 

 during the last ten or twelve years to the increased extent of 

 land that I have reclaimed from our hill-sides, and the in- 

 creased shelter of some 400 acres of woodland I have planted. 

 In my boyhood I have no recollection of seeing any whatever 

 in winter." 



CLYDE. 



We must now take up our thread again at " Clyde," at 

 its junction with " Sohvay," or as near to it as possible. 1 



About twenty years ago Mr. D. Cram (already mentioned 

 under evidence from " Forth " area) saw Starlings in 

 thousands on the Castle Loch, Lochmaidon (?), Ayrshire ; 

 and saw them also near Lockerbie, Dumfries (" Sohvay "). 



At Glendoune, Girvan, Ayrshire, Mr. J. G. K. Young 

 remembers seeing a few as long ago as he can recall, but 

 they only became numerous about five years ago (say 1887). 



1 We have but few records, simply because, perhaps of all our Scottish areas, 

 " Clyde," rich as it must be in its avifauna, seems to have but little attention 

 paid to its vertebrate fauna in any thorough systematic manner, either by its 

 societies or by individuals a very great pity. 



