BIRDS. 



309 



zione of the New Society of Perth — or about that time. Col. 

 Drummond Hay mentions it also in his Fauna of Tay. 



Now, all other evidence anywhere in Scotland — I speak here of 

 the mainland, not the isles — dates quite as far back, if not indeed 

 further, i.e. all such as can be taken seriously. Therefore, if at 

 one time (which may readily be credited) it did breed at localities 

 on the mainland {vide St. John and Dunbar as to Sutherland ; and 

 the above), I think any other later accounts can, in absence of fully 

 authentic proof, be only held to apply to "birds seen on late 

 passage " (or " visiting committees," so to speak, taking a " last 

 long lingering look" at their ancestral halls !). We know also that 

 it has been recorded that this sub-arctic species has been discovered 

 in later years to have nested, and indeed taken up apparently a 

 fixed residence, at a locality in Ireland — quite a new discovery to 

 British naturalists. AYe know also how the breedinof season of these 

 little birds varies wonderfully in the time of its commencement and 

 in duration at even the head-centres of their present distribution in 

 Britain — viz. in the Shetlands, Orkneys, and Outer Hebrides. It can 

 scarcely be unobserved that the increases, which I have abundant 

 evidence of, even at their headquarters, have taken place along the 

 lines of their present progression ; and the question naturally arises, 

 "Do we at this present time owe our dispersal of Eed-necked 

 Phalaropes to a north-eastern source, or to the shorter route and 

 headquarters in the north-west — say Iceland ? " That can and will be 

 answered in time by those appointed to work out all the statistics on 

 migration ; and I feel sure these could not be intrusted to better 

 men than are now engaged upon it. 



As Professor Newton, with whose opinion I am in perfect accord, 

 says : "It is possible that the present distribution of this species in 

 the Outer Hebrides, and in Shetland and Orkney, for all we know 

 (or can prove ! — J. A. H.-B.) may have taken place from a mainland 

 (and older— J. A. H.-B.) distribution." 



I say " just so " to that ; but I cannot consent to go back to any 

 theoretical hypothesis there, and desire strictly to adhere to facts 

 before us, and to actual deduction from already provided history. 

 (And at this point I vdsh. simply to ask my readers to " read back " 

 and form their own ideas as to the dispersal of this species, indicated 

 in prior volumes of this series, and carefully consider the claims of a 

 north-west versus a north-east origin.) 



I may perhaps be allowed, at this point, to express my o^vn 

 opinion, that fifty years ago, or nearly eighty years ago, the Eed- 



