HO 



BIRDS. 



north-east along to the more south-westerly extensions,^ and those 

 recorded to the north of the same. 



From the two divergent series of dates I think it will be seen that 

 two armies began to get within hailing distance of one another with 

 the great Grampian range only separating the hosts. The Grampian 

 range, as I have pointed out, is our natural boundary between 

 Tay and Strathmore, and Dee, and between Tay and Moray in 

 the north, and Argyll in the west. A careful comparison of the 

 accumulated dates in this inquiry will, I think, show that the 

 Starlings populating Moray had little or nothing to do with those 

 populating from the south. The Moray birds had come from the 

 north and from the very old centres in the far northern Shetland and Orkney 

 Islands, which in turn had also, like the Norsemen, populated the 

 outlying islands of the Outer Hebrides. But it is curious to find 

 that even to this day the Starling has not taken a firm hold upon the 

 west coast of West Ross, and is only moving southwards still with 

 apparently halting steps. (Soon, however, it would have become 

 impossible for the naturalist or historian of these movements to say 

 whence came these hosts.) When these great armies at last meet, 

 there will be vast possibilities, and the new blood which will be 

 introduced mutually when they do meet will possibly show an even 

 vaster increase than ever has yet come before oiu* notice. 



Of the distribution at the present day it may seem scarcely 

 necessary to speak, at least in an}- detail. 



Except high up among the mountains and in out-of-the-way 

 places, the distribution has become almost universal, and the time 

 may not be far removed when the great armies will coalesce. Then, 

 if I may continue to speak a little metaphorically — " Then shall come 

 the Deluge.'' 



A few details, however, I will give of information received since 

 I wrote the previous paper. 



In the Fordoun district Mr. J. Milne found his first nest not 

 before 186i j and since that year it increased enormously in the east 

 of Forfarshire. 



In Rannoch as late as 1901 Godfrey speaks of it as very rare, " a 

 pair here and there in Rannoch." 



Again, returning to the north-east, we find the statement, how- 

 ever, that the Neio Statistical Account includes it as "sometimes, 

 though rarely, found in company with crows " in the parish of 



^ It must be remembered the map only relates to these earlier movements, and has 

 nothing to do with the present distribntion. 



