BIRDS. 



137 



Family STURNIDJE. 

 [Agelaeus phoenicius (L.). Red-winged Starling. 



Rare. Probably introduced. 



Col. Drummond Hay records one shot on Sii* Robert Menzies" estates on 

 Loch Ericht side by Donald Cameron {Scot. KaL, 1885, p. 307), and mentions 

 that the - prevailing wmd for some time past had been from the eastward" {in 

 lit. to me, " Seggieden, 20th May 1866 "). This specimen is now in the Perth 

 Museum. 



Note.— The late Duke of Argyll introduced some of these birds at Inveraray 

 about three weeks i^reviously to above date (see under species in our volume 

 on the Vertebrate Fauna of Argyll), and Col. Drummond Hay became aware 

 of the fact shortly afterwards {Scot. Nat., 1887-9, p. 347).] 



Sturnus vulgaris, L. Common Starling. 



Eesident. Great abundance. Breeds. Increasing vastly still. Gre- 

 garious. Comes in strong pulsing waves or "rushes" ("I come; 

 I see; I conquer" is the motto of this vast advancing army) from 

 the south, and from the south-west, from Tweed and from Sqlway in 

 its first initiatory marches. It — or rather the two great divisions of 

 the army of the south — received a somewhat curious check in its 

 earlier movements at the borders of Forth and Tay; and even at the 

 present day cannot be said to have populated far into the west from 

 this approach. But let me take up the chronology a little more 

 exactly. 



The old Statistical Account is silent as to it. 



The New Statistical Account is almost equally so when it comes 

 to treat of its presence in the valley of the Tay and Strathmore. 

 Indeed, only two, or at most three localities are mentioned, \iz. 

 parish of Bendochy ; two pairs nesting at Coupar- Angus, two years 

 prior to 1845; and one record from the parish of St. Madoes, which 

 lies along the borders of the counties of Perth and Forfar, on the out- 

 skirts, as it were, of Strathmore. There were only two notices of its 

 occurrence by 1844 within the Forth areas of Fife. 



Don's " frequent in the mountains " is a curious entry, i.e. the 

 mountains of Forfar. Apart from the fact that " mountains" are not 

 the favourite haunts of the species, the dates are surprising, and 

 unless ornithologists can reckon upon a still older occupation in 

 Scotland bearing some resemblance to the isolations of the Squirrel 

 and the Crested Tit, we cannot accept Don's account. 



This, I fear, must remain a problem or be dismissed from our 

 chronology in a.d. 1906, or indeed in 1894, when I wTOte the fuller 

 treatise. 



