STARLING IN SCOTLAND, INCREASE AND DISTRIBUTION 9 



Scotland. We begin with " Tweed " and " Solway," and so 

 continue to work north through " Forth " and " Clyde." 



TWEED. 



The "Old Statistical Account" is silent (1791). 



The "New Statistical Account" is also silent (1844). 



Mr. James Hardy's data go back, he tells us, to 1830, 

 when he was fifteen years of age. At that time, small parties 

 of Starlings accompanied the Rooks to the cultivated fields 

 in the neighbourhood of Dunglass. The Rooks came from 

 Dunglass Rookery, which is partly in Berwickshire and partly 

 in East Lothian, " where probably," says Mr. Hardy, " Star- 

 lings had by this time settled." A few years after, Starlings 

 were found nesting near Cockburnspath, and young birds 

 were kept in cages as pets. About this time many occurrences 

 are noted in the " Berwickshire Naturalists' Club Proceed- 

 ings " ; and in Selby's " Report on the Ornithology of Ber- 

 wickshire, and districts within the limits of the Berwickshire 

 Naturalists' Club," it is included as a " permanent resident " 

 at the date of 1841. 



Mr. Hardy tells us, when writing to us in 1891, that 

 no great increase became apparent " until of recent years, 

 either here or in the east parts of Lothian, where now 

 the numbers are something wonderful." Mr. Hardy adds 

 a note which may have some significance, especially from 

 such a practised and accurate observer : " Of late years the 

 Starlings have disassociated themselves from the Rooks, and 

 prefer the company of Lapwings." 



Mr. George Muirhead, author of " The Birds of Berwick- 

 shire," writes us : " There has been a great increase. In the 

 beginning of this century it was so rare in the county, that 

 the late John Wilson of Edington Mains told me that he was 

 sixteen years old before he saw one, and that in his boyhood 

 the nest was considered to be a great prize, and the finding 

 of it was spoken of a year afterwards." Mr. Wilson was 

 born at Edington Mains, Berwickshire, in 1810; and lived 

 there all his life, until he removed to Duns. He died about 

 a year ago (i.e. say 1890). These records therefore go back 

 to about i 826. 



