402 The Birds of Nairn. [Sess. 



miles to the east. The east boundary-line runs almost due 

 south in a zigzag to Lochindorb. The south and longest 

 boundary, forming two sides of a triangle, runs for six miles 

 from Lochindorb to Carnglass, the apex of the triangle, and 

 then north-west for thirteen miles over the Strathdearn Hills 

 to the river Nairn at Croygorston. The west boundary zig- 

 zags almost due north from Croygorston through Croy and the 

 middle of Loch Flemington, over the Carse of Delnies to 

 Whiteness Head. These are the exact boundaries as indicated 

 by the Ordnance Survey, but, in considering Nairn as an 

 avifaunal area, I do not think it necessary to adhere pedan- 

 tically to the exact geographical boundary. If a blackbird 

 nests in my garden and a thrush in yours, the gardens being 

 divided by an invisible line, it is certain that your thrush will 

 sometimes invade my garden and my blackbird yours. Strictly 

 speaking, the western half of the Old Bar lies within the limits 

 of the county of Nairn, the eastern half lying within Elgin. 

 Similarly the Culbin Sands lie mostly or entirely within the 

 Elgin territory, but they are part of a system of sand-drifts 

 that extend westward to Mavistown. The Carse of Delnies, 

 again, is continuous and homogeneous with the Carse of 

 Ardersier, which is inside the Inverness border, whilst Loch 

 Flemington is divided along its length equally between Inver- 

 ness and Nairn. If a bird is killed on Loch Flemington, I 

 would not hesitate to record it for either county. Defining 

 roughly, therefore, yet with sufficient exactness for practical 

 purposes, the ground which I should consider the Nairn 

 faunal area is the tract running from Fort George along the 

 Firth to Findhorn, and inland to the hills as far as Carnglass. 



For my present purpose this faunal area may conveniently 

 be divided into three well-defined zones, lying more or less 

 parallel with the coast: — 



(1) The littoral zone, varying in breadth from half a mile 

 to three miles, and sweeping in a gentle curve along the south 

 side of the Firth from Fort George in the S.W. to the Findhorn 

 mouth in the N.E., a distance of some seventeen miles. This 

 strip is, throughout, a flat beach formation, nowhere rising to a 

 greater height than about 100 feet, the higher elevations 

 being mostly accumulations of drift - sand, covered with a 

 sparse short vegetation, or rounded gravelly knolls called 



