﻿Fresidenfs Address. 



64a 



feature in recent years is the increase in the number of 

 breeding species, certain ducks — Shoveller, Pintail, Tufted 

 Duck, and Pochard^ — the Great Crested Grebe, and the Greater 

 Spotted Woodpecker, being conspicuous examples. Less 

 observable ones are the Hawfinch and the Pied Flycatcher. 

 Many Woodcock now nest with us every year. What- 

 ever other causes may have contributed to bring all this 

 about, we may be sure the passing of the Acts for the pro- 

 tection of wild birds during the breeding season has been an 

 important factor. The Stock Dove, formerly absent or very 

 local and overlooked, is now to be met with throughout the 

 district. Our kuown losses as nesting species include the 

 Osprey, the Hen-Harrier, the Black Guillemot, and several 

 Terns, though some of the latter show signs of returning. 



As regards the complicated problems of migration — both 

 in respect of the extent to which the various species parti- 

 cipate in it and the routes followed — and of colonisation, 

 much work remains to be done in different parts of the 

 area before they can be solved. 



MAMMALIA. 



We have now reached the last or highest class in our 

 scheme, namely, the Mammals. 



For obvious reasons, the larger Mammalia forced them- 

 selves on the attention of our forefathers, and consequently 

 references to them exist from a comparatively early date. 

 Whales stranded in the estuary of the Forth formed the 

 subject of Sir Eobert Sibbald's Fhalainologia, published in 

 1692. Much of the zoology contained in the Old Statistical 

 Account of Scotland, written towards the end of the eighteenth 

 century, and also a good deal of that in the New one, compiled 

 forty years later, relates to such ferce naturce as the Badger, 

 Fox, Wild Cat, Marten, Polecat, Otter, Eat, Hare, Deer, etc. 

 These and other old references to the native quadrupeds are 

 most valuable for purposes of comparison, and enable us to 

 trace the changes that have taken place in this section of 

 our fauna. Bats, Shrews, Mice, and Voles were, however, 

 very imperfectly known in those days, and down to 1891, 

 when my account of the Mammalia of the district was first 



^ The Gadwall also is uow (1908) breeding in the district. 

 So likewise is the Wigeon. 



