BIRDS. 



139 



Near Montrose a marked increase is noted by Dr. Howden, but 

 there is little account of their very earliest appearance to nest ; but 

 Mr. Atherston, an old sportsman, told Dr. Howden that the first he 

 had obtained was in 1854, for the purpose of fly-tying. 



It rapidly swarmed into the Blairgowrie district, "countless 

 numbers roosting among the reeds of the Rae Loch ; whereas, about 

 1841, the bird was almost if not quite unknown. Half a crown was 

 freely given for a young bird from the nest." 



Further up the Tay the first nest was found about 1870 or 1871, 

 and great accessions to numbers were observed within the last sixteen 

 years above Perth. 



Then they entered Dee, coming from the south-west and south 

 about 1860, when the first nest was found {aud. Geo. Sim). 



Having sketched these earlier movements in the east, I take up 

 the dispersal in the west or south-west, across from Forth towards 

 Tay, and along the Vale of Menteith. This appears to have been of 

 much slower progress, and to have commenced about 1871. Indeed 

 they rather seemed to fall off in numbers as compared with twenty 

 years previously, or say about 1851, according to notes carefully 

 recorded by Miss Mary Buchanan at Killearn in the Blane valley. 

 There seems little doubt that the Starlings which first appeared in 

 the Blane valley were ofi"shoots from the Solway and via Clyde- 

 centre, as I have, I think, pointed out more fully in my original 

 essay. This locality, I must point out here, is within the Forth 

 area, and I mention it merely to show the direction of the advances 

 eastwards. Thence, however, the force of the battalions seems to 

 have turned eastwards and flooded the valley of the Allan AVater, and 

 thence reached into Tay. At the same time other birds appear to have 

 left Stirlingshire and followed along the south slopes of the Ochils, 

 and so reached into Fife, and great increase was noted about 1850. 



They seemed to " shy " the north side of the Vale of Menteith 

 for a time, but about 1871 they increased " prodigiously " on the north 

 side as far as Callander, and Mr. J. Buchanan Hamilton of Leny was 

 strongly impressed by their "surging," as it were, in successive 

 "waves" soon after their first appearance as early as 1838, but he 

 adds : " They did not penetrate into the Highlands much further 

 than Leny," i.e. about the time he wrote the above notes to me (see 

 further on under date). 



Now, if the map be referred to, I think it will be noticed that 

 there is a curious break, so to speak, between the recorded dates at 

 localities to the south of the Grampian ranges all the way from the 



