BIRDS. 



327 



Newton writes to me at the same time : " And if there had been any, 

 I tliiiik I should find tnoe of it." 



Now Glen Qrehy drains into Loch Awe, and thence to the west, 

 and therefore lies to the west of the Tay divide, or Tay boundary. 

 I maitikm tlus ina,tter here merely as a sidelight, still of some 

 interest, becsose no person now Uving, as I hare been careful to 

 asoertain with the assistance of my friend Mr. Charles H. Alston, 

 has any recollection of having seen Greenshanks anywhere within 

 the confines of that glen. Mr. Alston himself knows the whole glen 

 wen, and he has never seen one in it ; and I have also fished the 

 Orchy river between Dalmally and Inveroran, and often passed of 

 late years along the upper waters of the TuUa river, and have never 

 seen one. Bat on the other side of the watershed the Greenshank 

 has heenhufwiitobreed upon the Moor of Eannoch, within the drainage 

 area of Tay. Thus for many years this appears to have constituted 

 the soathem Umit of the breeding range of the species in Scotland, 

 at least I have never heard of any nest being found anywhere further 

 to the south. This fact is of interest in itself. And the other fact 

 seems to favour the direction of subsequent dispersal to have taken 

 {dace towards ike ead, and not from the Spey side, though that must 

 for the present, I think, remain somewhat uncertain (see the earlier 

 remarks above).^ But there is this in favour of the west to east 

 route, viz. that the general trend of the dispersal certainly appears 

 to haTe been from, and to, these directions further north. Whether 

 the changes in the massing of their breeding haunts — say, in the north- 

 west of the countay since I can remember — and the slight changes 

 that have taken place on the east side in Sutherland and Caithness, 

 as I hare indicated is the case in my last volume, are due to any 

 affections of climate or from other causes, I will not go into here, 

 lest I trouble my readers with too much repetition : except to remark 

 that it seems a little curious that, while movements in southerly 

 directions have undoubtedly taken place from towards its north-west 

 limits of breeding range in Scotland, so UUle moBement has beem. 

 detected at the Undts of its somtham breedmg range daring so moMg fears. 

 I await further inquiry in this direction, which may possibly throw 

 stniie lights Le. if such be forthcoming, upon what strikes me as an 

 interesting j^enomenon. I am not, for instance, aware of any 

 Greenshanks hairing bred anywhere further south— in Tay or in 

 Forth — as yet. 



1 ** John Sanstene piwrr! this way. That is nothing to me, as there is no evidence 

 that he passed this way again " — ^bat he may do so again ! (Carlyle). 



