STARLING IN SCOTLAND, INCREASE AND DISTRIBUTION 5 



a colder area to a warmer, a wintering within the influence of 

 the Gulf Stream both on the coast of Norway and in our isles. 

 These isothermal lines cannot be despised. 



Herr Miiller in Faroe in his " Fugle Fauna " says : " This 

 bird is a resident and not migratory, and is to be seen 

 throughout the islands both summer and winter." 



It does not seem necessary for us to endeavour to trace 

 back the earlier history of the Starling beyond the end of 

 last century as regards Scotland. Suffice it to say that, from 

 all available evidence, it seems to have inhabited the Orkney 

 and Shetland Isles " from time immemorial," as related by 

 Mr. Robert Gray in his " Birds of the West of Scotland." 



The note, however, in Pennant's "Caledonian Zoology," in 

 Lightfoot's " Flora Scotica" (vol. i. p. 24 of my interleaved 

 copy\ that the Stare breeds " in great numbers in the cliffs of 

 Arran, and other isles," can, however, be only taken as amis- 

 print, or otherwise as a lapsus calami, for what is correctly 

 stated in the earlier work of the same author in the 2nd 

 edition of his "British Zoology," Svo, 4 vols. (1768-1770), 

 vol. i. p. 231. 



Then Fleming (1828) and Selby (1833) quote Pennant; 

 Jenyns (1835) has nothing of value regarding its presence at 

 Scottish localities ; and Montagu (1833) is dumb. 



Rutty (" Nat. Hist, of Dublin," 1772) does not mention the 

 Starling, but his whole list of birds is very short and imperfect. 

 But in 1849 Thompson speaks of it as "common and breed- 

 ing in many parts of the island " (i.e. Ireland), and gives 

 evidence of a regular and extensive migration, extending over 

 several weeks, and as seen to " pour into Ireland from the north 

 and wing their way southwards. This migration commences 

 towards the middle of September, according to the season, 

 and continues daily for about six or eight weeks. . . . They 

 are generally seen only for one or two hours from 8 to 10 

 A.M." Besides these remarks, there are others upon the migra- 

 tion of the Starling well worthy of perusal ; perhaps not the 

 least interesting being that these migratory flocks may almost 

 be said to have been traced as starting from Port- Patrick in 

 the South-West of Scotland, " leaving before sunrise to steer 

 for the southward." 



In 1845, Yarrell only quotes former authorities for 



