FAUXAL POSITION. 



147 



attractions to insectivorous birds, nor tempt them to tarry, to the 

 same extent as the well-wooded areas to the west of the watershed, 

 so that even in the isolated cosy corners, such as the woods of 

 Haddo House, and the deep and romantic glen of the Braes of Gight 

 on the Ythan, a distinct difference in bird-population is appre- 

 ciable both in species and in numbers. We believe, when the whole 

 faunas of our great watersheds are more fully worked out than 

 they can claim to be at present, that the richest faunas will 

 always be found along the lines of the deepest, and at the same 

 time widest, depressions, and across the lowest watersheds. The 

 faunal area of Moray, or drainage area of the Moray Firth, con- 

 tains the whole drainage systems of the principal rivers — Deveron, 

 Spey — and all its tributaries — Lossie, Nairn, and Findhorn, the 

 easterly drainage of the river Ness and its contributory waters, 

 including the Great Glen itself, and northwards, the valleys of the 

 Beauly and Conon. The area contains also the whole vast mass of 

 the Monadhliath mountains, which, with the parallel range of the 

 Cairngorms and extension to the west of the Grampian range, forms 

 the wide trough or valley of the Spey, which wild group, occupying 

 a central position between Spey and the Great Caledonian Glen, 

 gives birth to innumerable rivers and burns, chief amongst which 

 are the Calder Water and the Dulnan — tributaries of Spey — and 

 the Findhorn and the Nairn, besides many minor streams which 

 run north into Loch Ness, such as the Burns of Foyers and Tarfl'. 



Thus it will be seen that a very compact, if large, natural 

 faunal area has been taken into consideration — the landward 

 portion hemmed in by some of the highest mountains of Scotland, 

 and the seaward area similarly enclosed by the funnel-shaped 

 contours of the shores. 



We believe, when we come to treat of the fauna under species, 

 that this will be found to be fully borne out by the occurrence 

 of certain species within the area, either as 'peculiar to it, or 

 as more abundantly represented by individuals, or as occurring 

 even only on migrations in numbers greater than those met with 

 in other areas of Scotland. The trough of the Great Glen, and the 

 minor, but still powerful, ' conductor ' of that of Spey, appears to 

 us distinctly to form a high-road by which many species reach our 



