396 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



correct, and that migrating birds have httle or no influence upon 

 it. The Heron seems to be one of our most sedentary species, as 

 may be seen by the absence or scarcity of reference to it in the 

 " Reports on the Migration of Birds," 1880-87, ^ and the " Reports 

 on Movements and Occurrences of Birds in Scotland, 1892-8;- 

 and Gatke speaks of its "extreme rarity" in Heligoland : "only 

 one or two young Herons are met with on some of the days of the 

 general autumn migrations."^ From these 900 birds, then, our 

 stock has to be maintained ; and it may be asked what prospect 

 is there of this being successfully done 1 I am afraid that the 

 tendency is towards a decrease in numbers, due, generally speak- 

 ing, to what is called, by a euphonious phrase, the spread of 

 civilisation. Civilisation is represented amongst us by the pollu- 

 tion and corruption of our water-ways and atmosphere, by the 

 increase and spread of man and his works, by reclamation of 

 marshlands, by more deadly certainty in the weapon in the hand 

 of the prowling gunner, and by pride in the destruction of speci- 

 mens of this once " royal " bird. To these causes may be added 

 the conspicuous size and striking appearance of the bird, and the 

 destruction of the trees in which it nests by (1) natural decay, 

 (2) severe weather, (3) felling, and (4) the ill effects which the 

 nests themselves must have on the trees in which they are placed. 

 On the other hand, and as favouring the increase of the species, 

 we have the extension of tree-planting, and the protection of the 

 species (along with others) by statutes, and, most effectually of all, 

 by individuals — such as proprietors and lessees of properties on 

 which it nests. This may be said to be universal now (such a 

 project as that of the old factor of Douglas being impossible), but, 

 as illustrated by what is contained in the body of this paper, seems 

 only to be effective when circumstances — such as remoteness from 

 centres of human population and seclusion, such as the Highlands 

 afford — come to the aid of the j)rotectors. 



The sites I have named for the nests — Scots Firs, Spruce, Larch, 

 Beech, Ash, Oak, and Hawthorn trees (the first-named greatly in 

 the majority), varying in height above the ground from 10 to 70 



^ Committee of the British Association. 



- Annals of Scot. Xat. Hist. 



" Heligoland as an Ornithological Ohservatory (1895), p* 455. 



