BIRDS. 



229 



friesshire has been recorded as a locality for it, and this is not the 

 only species said to be confined in Scotland to the counties of 

 Dumfries and Elgin.' We consider the remark quite deserving of 

 reproduction and accentuation. 



Norman considered it as * not rare,' and noted it as observed 

 by him at Ferness near Forres. ^ It has evidently been for long a 

 summer visitant, but fluctuating considerably in numbers one 

 year with another until quite of late years. However common 

 it may have been for many years back, one thing seems perfectly 

 certain, and that is, in 1891 enormous numbers poured into 

 the Spey valley and occupied every vantage-point well up to the 

 higher valleys of the Carn districts and upper watersheds of even 

 the Findhorn. A comparative scarcity, however, was locally 

 observed at and around Kingussie. Sites never occupied before 

 were taken possession of high up the Deveron, Avon, and southern 

 tributaries of Spey, whilst the great old forests of Dulnan and the 

 wooded tracts generally were literally crowded with Redstarts. 

 Indeed, a regular colonising ' wave ' seems to have invaded Spey- 

 side and Strathspey in 1891. We think the fact is extremely 

 interesting if taken in connection with the appearance of the same 

 species as recorded in our volume on Argyll, as invading the 

 northern parts of that area in 1890 (Fauna of Argyll and the Inner 

 Hebrides, p. 57, q.v.). Nor is the observation made by ourselves 

 alone, but is also testified to by Hinxman, who has been three 

 years resident in the service of the Geological Survey of Scot- 

 land in the Carn districts of Glenlivet and Avon, and who, in 

 his reports to us on the bird-life, dwells at some length upon the 

 surprising influx of Redstarts there. In that year we met with 

 Redstarts high up upon the sparsely wooded ridges of the water- 

 sheds, at some 1200 to 1400 feet elevation, far up among the 

 scaurs and * slocks ' and ravines of the hills, and down upon the 

 lower, deeply-wooded plains, especially amongst the piles of freshly 

 cut pine branches and thinnings, and by the moorland edges of the 

 forty-year-old pine woods. On the burned ground also of the 

 Crannach Wood, where they have existed for many summers, back 

 certainly as long as St. John's time or longer, they were remark- 

 ably abundant. But in 1892 almost a startling decrease was 

 observed and commented upon both by Harvic-Brown on Spey- 



1 Ferness is on the Findhorn valley, thirteen miles from Forres. 



