226 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



II. — Supplementary Notes on the Birds fouiul breeding in Sutherland.^ 

 By Mr John A. Harvie-Brown, F.Z.S., Member of the 

 British Ornithologists' Union. 



Since I wrote and read my original notes on this subject in 

 1871, and since they were revised in 1874, and printed in the 

 Society's Proceedings in 1875, it can hardly be expected that any 

 very marked changes have taken place in the summer avi-fauna of 

 the county ; still it is not uninteresting to trace the gradual 

 progress of the changes, such as they are, the increase of certain 

 species and the decrease of others, brought about, in the one case, 

 generally by the extension of agricultural land improvements and 

 the planting and growth of wood in certain districts, and in the 

 other by the influence of game-preservers or by the backwardness 

 of the seasons of late years. Since the date of my last personal 

 observations in the county (1869) eight years have elapsed, but 

 during that time I have obtained much interesting information 

 from my kind and obliging correspondents, especially Mr Thomas 

 Mackenzie of Dornoch, Mr J. Crawford of Tongue, and from Dr 

 James M. Joass of Golspie,t which has enabled me not altogether 

 to lose sight of the subject, and which has helped me to form some 

 idea of the present fauna of the north and east. The results, 

 however, of a visit made during the past summer to many of the 

 old localities in the west, besides giving me a personal insight into 

 such little changes as have occurred, enable me at this time to 

 bring the subject more fully up to date than I could otherwise 

 have done. As change in distribution, and increase or decrease 

 in numbers of certain species, however slight, and within however 

 small an area — if such can be traced with a fair amount of 



* Vide Proc. Nat, Hist. Soc. of Glasgow, Vol. ii., p. 69. 

 t When this paper was read in September 1877, I said that I hoped to be 

 able to add a list of the species in the Dunrobin Museum. I have now received 

 a catalogue of the species at present represented in the collection, along with 

 particulars of date and eapture, localities, etc., of the specimens. It is, how- 

 ever, only intended for private use, not beiug as yet considered complete 

 enough to warrant publication. We may hope, however, that before long 

 the collection will attain more complete proportions, as becomes the representa- 

 tive museum of one of our most interesting counties. As it stands at present, 

 it is far from being really incomplete, there being 181 specimens, representing 

 138 species of birds ; and 89, out of a total of 115 species which are found 

 breeding in the county, have their eggs represented in the collection. 



