STARLING IN SCOTLAND, INCREASE AND DISTRIBUTION 15 



" They come in winter and autumn, increasing in numbers 

 as the season advances, and occupy high laurels on the lawn 

 now in thousands." 



From Luss west side of Loch Lomond we have a 

 very full account of them from Mr. Alfred Brown. He says : 

 " The Starling has greatly increased in numbers, and is at 

 present (1893) more numerous than at any previous time. 

 I think the bird began to put itself in evidence about 1870, 

 and has increased ever since. I remember in 1865 watch- 

 ing the Daws at Inch Moin and Inch Galbraith, and there 

 were no Starlings (or hardly any) amongst them, and now 

 there are as many Starlings as Daws." Mr. Brown enumer- 

 ates a great variety of nesting-places, " all swarming with 

 Starlings, and always associating with Daws." 



ARGYLE. 



The "Old Statistical Account" gives Cara and Gigha 

 793)> v l- vm '- P- 5 l > an d Kilfinan in Cowall (1798), vol. 

 viii. p. 51, and vol. xiv. p. 262. 



The " New Statistical Account " mentions Inveraray and 

 Kilchurn. 



" Benderloch " (Mr. William Anderson Smith) tells us, 

 ("Land and Water," July 1880): "We remember flocks 

 of many hundreds in the country to the south of Glasgow 

 (" Clyde "), now nearly thirty years ago. They had secured a 

 firm hold of the country before that. . . . Yet it is only a 

 few years since they arrived in the district of Benderloch." 



The Duke of Argyll, writing in the same year, makes the 

 date of their appearance at Inveraray very recent (" Land and 

 Water "), and their arrival on the shores of the Clyde [North 

 Shores J. A. H.-B.] as comparatively so." 



Anderson Smith also speaks of it in the Outer Hebrides 

 as having " long held undisputed sway among the caves of 

 the cliffs." 



In 1867 Graham speaks of it as abundant in lona in 

 winter, and my friend Mr. Colin M'Vean can answer for 

 their breeding there as early as I 848. 



Now, in 1894, the Starling is almost universally dis- 

 tributed over all the lower and more fertile parts of the 



