Vlll INTRODUCTION. 



contrary, many species which are known only in England as 

 Periodical Migrants or Annual Visitants, nest regularly and 

 bring up their young there, and may thus be regarded as 

 peculiarly Scottish. Amongst these may be mentioned 

 Parus cristatus, Fringilla spinus, Linota flavirostris) Loxia 

 curvirostra, Corvus corax, C. comix, Tetrao urogallus, T. la- & s 

 gopus, Eudromias morinellus, Tot anus glottis, Tringa alpina, ^ 

 Phalaropus hyperboreus, Numenius ph&opus, Anser ferus, 

 Mergus merganser, Colymbus arcticus> C. septentrionalis, Les- 

 tris catarractes, L. parasiticm, Falmarus glacialis, and Pro- 

 eellaria leachii. A few of these, however, as Corvus. corax 

 and Tringa alpina , nest regularly, though in smaller num- 

 bers, in England; and Loxia curvirostra has done so oc- 

 casionally (vide p. 29). 



The Rare and Accidental Visitants form a large proportion 

 of the total number of species in the British list, being 135 out 

 of 395, or rather more than one-third of the whole. If from 

 these we exclude the Terns, Gulls, and Petrels, many of 

 which are almost cosmopolitan in their distribution, it will be 

 found that of the remainder 48 are European, 14 Asiatic, 11 

 African, and 42 American* in their origin. 



The European species are doubtless too well known to 

 require particular enumeration, while the proximity of the 

 British Islands to the European continent renders their oc- 

 currence here the less remarkable. 



Those of Asiatic origin are : 



Muscicapa parva (3)f, Turdus varins (12), T, atrigularis: 

 (1), T. siblricus (1), Reguloides superciliosus (2), Alauda 

 sibirica (1), Carpodacus erythrinus (2), Cypselus caudacutiis 

 (1), Syrrhaptes paradoxus (numerous examples in two dif- 



* One of these, however, Ortyx virginianus, is an introduced species. 

 t The figures in brackets indicate the number of times which the 

 species has been recorded to have occurred. 



