1904-1905.-] The Avifauna of the Solway Area. 183 



unusual circumspection, or taking rapid advantage of the 

 rare occasions when the youthful herds became drowsy and 

 slept at their posts, that the sable-coated gentry had a chance 

 of doing damage. At other times the rooks were destroying 

 untold quantities of grubs and noxious insects. 



Then about the advent of the early 'Seventies the whole 

 rook population came under the iniluence of a great change 

 of habits. Eggs of all kinds, young birds, small rodents, 

 young rabbits, chickens, and ducklings were devoured as 

 greedily as ever the carrion-crow did the same thing. So, of 

 course, the gamekeepers were everywhere up in arms against 

 the rooks, with the usual result. The whole subject of this 

 curious change of habits and its consequences might easily 

 provide facts for a lengthy communication, but it may suffice 

 to say at present that our rook population in Solway has 

 been reduced by considerably more than one half, — many of 

 the largest rookeries are without a single nest left, and all 

 remaining have been reduced in numbers. 



One of the reasons given for this singular assumption of 

 bad habits is the very probable one (in fact, it may be taken 

 as proven), the taking of the rook's usual food of insects and 

 vermiform animals by the immense hordes of starlings that 

 now everywhere exist. Since I can remember, the starling 

 was a very scarce bird indeed, and those not much older than 

 myself remember it as very rare or altogether unknown. By 

 about 1870 it began to increase at a rapid rate, and one 

 wonders now where all its vast numbers find a living. Some 

 interesting modifications in its habits are being evolved as it 

 gradually adapts itself to new conditions. Once it would not 

 nest anywhere except in a hole in a tree, or a crevice of a 

 building. Now it will build its nest, sparrow-like, in ivy, and 

 I have even seen its home made in a laurel bush, a couple of 

 feet from the ground. There seems little doubt that pastoral 

 farming, which has succeeded so largely to arable cultivation, 

 has favoured the remarkable extension of the species. 



During my boyhood a bird that was never seen with us 

 was the stock-dove. I happened to be present when a nest 

 of the stock-dove was taken in Southwick in 1876 amongst 

 the ivy on the cliffs at the shore. Since then the stock-dove, 

 previously only a rare visitant to Scotland, has spread all over 



