98 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Heronry at present. They may settle also on the south shore of 

 Loch Assynt, which is well- wooded ; but, as the Rook seems to 

 prefer the proximity of houses, or to find ready-made nests, it is 

 on the whole more likely that they will choose either one or the 

 other of the two first-mentioned localities. 



JACKDAW. 



CORVUS MONEDULA, Linnaeus. 



The " pert Jackdaw " has not yet found suitable breeding 

 places in the west, and is for the most part only known to the 

 natives by name. It is, however, common in the east, and, from 

 what I can gather, is an " old resid enter " in the parishes of 

 Bonar and Golspie. It is also present iii the north, at Tongue. 



Ohs. Chough, Pyrrhocorax graculus (Linnaeus).— Mr Dunbar 

 says that " The Chough inhabits only a few localities in Suther- 

 land " (A. G. More in "Ibis," 1865, p. 132). Mr St. John, in his 

 "Tour in Sutherland" (Vol. i, p. 86), writes as follows of one 

 locality: "Whilst looking for Rock Pigeons, I saw a few of the 

 Red-legged Crow or Cornish Chough, passing from rock to rock, 

 and busily employed about the broken stones, searching for food." 

 Mr Dunbar probably refers to the same occasion, as he accom- 

 panied Mr St. John during that excursion. As I have utterly 

 failed in obtaining any further evidence of the presence of the 

 species, even in this very locality, I am at present inclined to 

 think that the specimens seen by Mr St. John were accidental 

 visitors, and not birds breeding in the neighbourhood, and so I 

 meanwhile exclude it from this list.* 



Order il, PASSERES, 

 CONIROSTRES. Fam. ii., S TURN IDA E. 



COMMON STARLING. 



STURNUS VULGARIS (Linnaeus). 



This is a very abundant species at Scowrip, Handa, and on the 

 Badcall islands, as elsewhere in the county. On the islands they 



* But as the Chough is a species which has decreased in numbers throughout 

 Scotland, it is quite possible that it did breed at the locality named by Mr St. 

 John, at that time. Mr Gray ("Birds of Scotland," p. 162) seems to consider 

 that Skye is now its northern limit. 



