300 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



Starling till I was thirty years of age (1835), when 

 one day, between Galston and Loudon Castle, I 

 beheld one on a tree. I shot — down it came. It fell 

 on a bank : I rushed forward to it, but, when near, 

 stopped to admire. It lay before me, its green and 

 blue feathers shining and glancing as the morning 

 sun played over them. I thought I had never seen 

 a bird so beautiful. After a little I gently put 

 down my hand to take it. Whir ! The bird has flown, 

 and I am madly pursuing it. I was so enchanted 

 with it that I think I would have followed it in 

 front of the windows of Loudon Castle. At length 

 it fell, and I secured it. But for a considerable time 

 I could not venture back to the place, as the folk in 

 Galston heard that I had shot the bird." 



With regard to the causes of the great multiplica- 

 tion of the Starling in Ayrshire in recent years, the 

 fact first to be noticed is that for long the bird had 

 been abundant both north and south of the county. 

 That it was abundant in England appears from 

 White's Natural History of Selborne, published in the 

 end of last century. The testimony of Fleming (British 

 Animals) is that in 1828, the date of the publication 

 of his great work, " it abounds in Orkney and in the 

 Shetland Islands." How is it, then, that sixty years 

 ago it was almost unknown in Ayrshire, and that 

 now it is to be seen in greater flocks than any other 

 bird? The Squirrel has made its appearance and 

 become abundant in our woods during the same 

 period, and the Gold-crested Wren has also become 

 much more common than formerly. 



I would notice four changes which have come over 

 the county during the period, all of which are in 

 favour of the Starling. (First) Woods have been 

 greatly extended, with suitable nesting-places in old 

 trees. (Second) The increase of population, and pro- 

 portionally much more of wealth, in the country 

 has led to old mansions, castles, and churches being 

 abandoned; while modern taste has led to many 

 of these being planted with ivy, which forms homes 



