BIRDS. 



93 



proofe. In fact, I may express my ideas thus : — TVe have considerable 

 e^■idences of the exiitence of an older fauna of Continental origin, in the 

 apparent remnants and isolated areas in which these are found ; and, also, 

 we have of course abundance of facts showing the rapid increase of other 

 species which are pressing forward in evolution and dispersal at the present 

 time. It can only, however, remain a matter of opinion as to whether 

 certain far southerly and very limited accounts as to isolated companies or 

 pairs of such decadent species can be trusted. 



CoL Drummond Hay informed CoL Campbell that two specimens of the 

 Crested Tit were shot at Blair Drummond /Forth) by the late Dr. Saxby, 

 in 1S58, quite, in his opinion then, "entitling the bird to admittance to the 

 place in the Perthshire list." If this was a correct identincation — and tkit 

 of course is quite possible — it is still sufficient for my argimient as above, 

 that at the present time it is surely extinct there ; and I am not aware that 

 another has ever been seen within many miles of it. As I have said, or 

 Col. Drummond Hay has told us, this was in the year 1858 — when men 

 were young I At that time also, or a little later in Ufe, other accounts were 

 given of these curious sporadical appearances ; but I think it is sufficient to say 

 they are none of them satisfactory, or as modem ornithologists now require. 



A remarkable change, however, has come over the prospects of the species, 

 and its present and future. There are now some thirty miles, so to speak, of 

 Crested Tits in Spet, by two to seven or ten miles in width ; and what is 

 more, there is plenty of evidence that congestion of that great district has 

 already begun, and these handsome little Paridte are compelled outwards to 

 new lands, as these latter become available in suitability, or by the force of 

 circumstances in their great centre of Speyside and Strathspey. It may even 

 be that as the species more and more recovers its " fitness " as a species, it 

 may accommodate its requirements more and more to its newer surroundings. 

 Indeed, there seems to me to be a state of aflfairs analogous to the resuscita- 

 tion of the Squirrel in these at present comparatively recent extensions of 

 what was well known to have been a much more limited dispersal, or as I 

 maintain, an almost decadent remnant. I think that we have still to wait 

 to see the Crested Tit expand and flow over the Grampians to the Tay basin 

 or into upper Dee, imtil easier routes become congested to the east and 

 north- Its present lines of advance are not difficult to trace, and iire plain 

 enough ; but some day it will prove interesting to watch the further develop- 

 ments in other directions — when that time arrivts. 



In concluding this very negative article, I have only to add what I may 

 call, in contTi 'distinction of leunsT positive negatives; and I scarcely think 

 these are worthy of space. But to save trouble after, I may mention shortly 

 that ^Mr. Duncan Dewar wrote me in reply to my inquiry : " I never got 

 either a Marsh or a Crested Tit on Loch Tay side." My asking the question 

 was induced by seeing a statement in a very beautiful book issued by Messrs. 

 Virtue and Co., 1901, that the bird existed " at one time below Finlarig of Craig 

 Cailleach" {loc. ctf., p. 161, 1901), but upon what authority I do not know. 



I wish to add here that there is no specimen of this bird mentioned in the 



