74 TRANSACTIONS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
air, sometimes lower down, and as we near Perth Bridge we find him 
nesting underneath, while others are screaming and screeching m 
every direction, both there and further down the river, in search o 
insect food. , . 
Besides all those mentioned, we see also at this season on ou 
way down many of our autumn friends to which I have already 
drawn your attention-the Little Grebe, Coot, and Water-hen, nesting 
on the backwaters; the Grey or Yellow Water-Wagtail, now in full 
summer plumage, balancing himself on some boulder in the ^rearn, 
his mate on her nest near by; an occasional Kingfisher, the Dipper, 
a Lapwing or two, and several others. 
Such is bird life, or was till very lately, on the Tay, but I fea 
that the birds are getting scarcer every year. The water-birds, 
properly so called, have greatly diminished from many causes on 
which I will not now enter, but will merely say that one o e 
greatest is the wholesale destruction of eggs, not only by professiona 
egg-lifters, but by every boy or lad in the vicinity of their breeding- 
grLnds. I am glad to find that a move is now being made m 
The right direction to bring eggs, as well as the birds themselve , 
under the Wild Bird Protection Act. This is a measure which it is 
to be hoped every Natural History Society throughout the country 
will support with their utmost strength. _ 
, Ainong the land section of those birds I have “/ntioned there 
has been only a partial decrease. The Skylark and the Bu nc 
" have grown scarcer, and perhaps one or two others-the Swallow and 
House-Martin for instance,—but this has been broug t a ou ‘re y 
by the Sparrow, which robs them of their nests. On the other hand, 
there has been a most marvellous increase in the case of the Stai mg, 
perhaps the greatest egg-stealer of any. It was only in the midd e 
of the third decade of this century that the Starling made its 
appearance in Perthshire, and, I believe, in this part of Scotland; yet 
now they are spread far and wide, and in hundreds of thousands. 
The cause of this wonderful change is difficult to e.xplain. An orni¬ 
thological friend, on discussing with me the general decrease o ^ our 
birds, once made the remark, “ The day will come when not a single 
bird will be left but the Sparrow and the Starling, and the Star ^ 
will have the dominion.” In conclusion, I will only say thoug 
we are seemingly tending to it—may that day be stih very far 
from us. 
NOTE.-Since the above was written the Rev. Biot Edmonston of 
in the South-east part of Perthshire, in the Forth District, informs the wiitei tha 
the Starling did not appear in that part of the country until many years subsequen 
to the time stated. 
