BIRDS. 



141 



Garvoch (Dee), and they are included as visitors to Bervie and 

 Banchory Ternan (Leith Adams). 



Now comes an interesting note from Mr. Godfrey. In 1904 he 

 speaks of a great movement of this species. He saw it in force on 

 the 27th June at Loch Earn. " Flocks were following one another, 

 and continually on the move in the meadows, and at 8.10 p.m. one flock 

 of at least a thousand birds passed over my head with a pronounced 

 ' swish ' of their wings. I do not know where their first resting- 

 place might be, but I suspected that it might be Lairig Eala. On 

 28th June, in the morning, I saw a flock of about a hundred flying 

 down the glen. In the afternoon I was informed of an enormous 

 flock passing, and at 6 p.m. another scarcely inferior in size. In this 

 flock I estimated that there were at least two thousand birds. This 

 and many smaller flocks all passed up Glen Ogle. 



" At the same instant one single bird was passing down the glen at 

 a lower elevation, and below the big flock. On the same day my 

 l)rother reported to me a similar extraordinary movement at Stronvar, 

 Balquhidder (Forth). These movements, however, were soon over. 

 Perhaps not one hundred birds were seen by the 5th July, and these 

 were seen flying down the glen towards Loch Earn at 7.30 P.M. On 

 to 1st August small parties were seen on the hillside and at the foot 

 of the glen." These interesting notes by Mr. Godfrey I have con- 

 sidered well worthy of reproducing in extenso. 



Whatever the ultimate outcome of this enormous increase may 

 be, one thing is patent and incontrovertible, viz. : To many people, 

 several of whom I know personally, the Starling in its millions is 

 becoming a poisonous pest, literally an insanitar}^ and ever-increasing 

 evib and friends of my own assure me, and I know it to be a fact, so 

 great is the evil in some places that the only plan to get rid of them 

 locally is to cut down old and long-cherished bays and laurels to get 

 rid of their unsavoury presence. Yet we do find still some rather 

 grandmotherly legislation endeavouring to preserve the "bonny 

 harmless birds " ! 



In 1905 I found it stated to be " on the increase" in most of the 

 upper glens in the west and south-west of Tay, but still ' rare, or 

 much rarer, in Rannoch. I found it myself commoner in Glen 

 Artney, but only in isolated pairs here and there ; scarcer in Glen 

 Lochay, and absent, or at least none seen, in Glen Lyon, but a few 

 about Killin and Kenmore. 



In Strathmore and east of the river Tay it was much more in 

 evidence. The Rev. Mr. M'Connochie speaks of it thus : " Common. 



