i64 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



appeared the year before for the first time {A.S.N.H., 1893, p. 73). 

 Mr Meade Waldo {in lift.) kindly tells us that it is now not rare 

 and breeds in Orkney. 



Shetland. 



No record. 

 Uncommon visitor. 



Sutherland. 



North Argyll. 



In the Fauna of Argyll and the Inner Hebrides, p. 128, Dr 

 Harvie-Brown says that there cannot be a doubt that it occurs in 

 Argyll. 



It will be seen from the above that the Shoveler is rapidly 

 increasing as a breeding species in Scotland, being naturally 

 more numerous in the localities where there are lochs and 

 mosses adapted to its habits than in other less suitable 

 districts. We have given all the information we have been 

 able to collect on the spread and distribution of this species 

 in our country. In this case, as in all others, it is far from 

 being complete, but it is impossible ever to obtain a perfect 

 series of records of breeding places of any species and of the 

 dates when they were first inhabited. In this imperfect 

 world of ours, however, we must make the best of what we 

 have, and it is our hope that papers such as these will show 

 where the blanks lie, and in what localities most work still 

 remains to be done. There are many places not colonised 

 by the Shoveler, and probably even more where colonisation 

 has taken place but has not yet been recorded, and Scottish 

 ornithologists have still an interesting task before them in 

 tracing to its close the spread of this and many another 

 species throughout the country. 



