PREFACE. 



iii 



forest-growth by wind or fire, or the felling of eighty- 

 year-old timber tracts by man, besides many results 

 of land-improvements in the course of time. By these 

 changes the decrease of many species and the increase of 

 others almost of a certainty result. The food-supplies of 

 our game-pullets in some places almost or completely dis- 

 appear; and the destruction of certain seeds and weeds, 

 which were the favourite food of some of our smaller birds, 

 such as the Goldfinch and Rose Linnet, has left its mark in 

 many localities. But in these same or similarly treated 

 areas, just as some species decrease or disappear, other 

 species take possession and thrive and multiply, such as 

 the Greenfinch and the summer migratory Warblers. 



Many instances of this, we believe, will become 

 apparent under the list of species treated of. 



In treating of the faunal area of Tay, I desire in the 

 first instance to acknowledge my indebtedness to the 

 Perthshire Society of Natural Science. It ought never to 

 be forgotten — and I trust the fact will not be lost sight of, 

 but gratefully remembered, at least by Scottish naturalists 

 — that from the earliest day of its inauguration and subse- 

 quent establishment, after passing through a somewhat 

 tempestuous rivalry with an older and decadent body, and 

 manfully fighting its way through all these storms, the 

 Perthshire Society of Natural Science "has set an example 

 to all local societies, in adhering to its sphere of first use- 

 fulness — the elucidation of the Fauna and Flora, Geology 

 and Topography, of the area to which its labours have been 



