1910-1911.] Bird Migration in Solway, 295 



therefore to the Cruithne, so Scotland has as good a claim 

 to Finn MacCumhal and his race as the men of Erin. 



It may be questioned if the stories of Finn as the leader 

 of an Irish militia are reliable, as they have been assigned 

 to a period long after the time in which Finn and his men 

 lived — a period the recollection of which can only have been 

 known to the people of the third century by the oral traditions 

 of a long lost past. 



11.— BIRD MIGRATION IN SOL WAY. 



By Mr EOBEET SERVICE, Corresponding Member. 



{Communicated Nov. SS, 1910.) 



Before entering upon a discussion of the main topic upon 

 which I have been invited to discourse, it will be convenient 

 to make a few explanatory remarks upon its title, " Bird 

 Migration in Solway." 



First, as to the portion of country comprehended under the 

 term " Solway." It covers all the land from the watersheds 

 of the Esk and Liddell, far up along the eastern Borders, 

 right to the western seaboard of Wigtownshire, thus com- 

 prising the three counties of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and 

 Wigtown. As, of course, is well known, these faunal areas, 

 Solway, Clyde, Tweed, Forth, and so on, were mapped out by 

 a very distinguished Scottish naturalist, the late Dr Buchanan 

 White, of Perth, and they have been adopted in the most 

 cordial way by at least all the zoologists, although I believe 

 that some of the botanists prefer their own notions in dealing 

 with the geographical distribution of their special subjects. 

 These faunal areas are in every case based upon the grouping 

 of watersheds, so far at least as the mainland is concerned. 



Solway is the most southerly, and if the others form in all 

 respects as natural a division as it does, Scottish naturalists 

 have every reason to honour the name Buchanan White. 



There is one special feature appertaining to Solway that I 

 VOL. VI. X 



