COL. CAMPBELL ON DISTRIBUTION OF PERTHSHIRE BIRDS. lOI 
VIIL —The Distribution of Birds included in the Avi-Fauna of 
Perthshire. 
By Lieut.-Colonel Campbell. 
(Read 13th Dec., 1894.) 
When I was first asked by our late friend Dr. Buchanan White to 
write a paper on Ornithology for the Perthshire Society of Natural 
Science, I thought I might be able to say something about Cosmo¬ 
politan Birds; as, however, there are very few species distributed 
over the whole surface of the globe, I decided to make the subject 
of my paper the Distribution of Birds included in the Avi-Fauna of 
Perthshire. Since it was written it has been revised by Colonel 
Drummond Hay, to whom I am much indebted for the valuable 
notes which he has been good enough to add, and which I have 
incorporated in it. 
With regard to the general distribution of Birds, I would bring to 
your notice the fact, that in these small islands of ours, situated as 
they are on the western extremity of that immense extent of country 
comprising Asia and Europe, we have an Avi-Fauna of which a large 
proportion may be said to be typical of the birds which are found 
throughout the length and breadth of these two vast continents. As 
an instance of the north and south meeting on the banks of the Tay, 
I may mention the fact that our climate permits the Glaucous Gull to 
pay us an occasional visit in winter, and even the Little Auk is some¬ 
times driven to our shores; whilst of visitors from the south I believe 
we have a specimen of that beautiful and most interesting bird, the 
Hoopoe, an inhabitant of India, Egypt, and the south of Europe, 
which was procured not twenty miles from the Fair City. 
Under such climatic conditions it is no wonder that the Avi- 
Fauna of Great Britain and Ireland should be so rich; and, as we in 
Perthshire are determined to be to the front in Ornithology as well as 
in all other branches of Natural Science, I think you will find, when 
Colonel Drummond Hay has arranged the specimens in our new 
hall, that we are not behind any other local Museum in having a 
collection of birds which may be said to be not only representative 
of this country, but of Mid and Northern Europe and Asia, as well as 
of many species from Southern Europe, Persia, Afghanistan, India, 
China, and even Japan. 
Many years ago, when I was a newly joined subaltern, I made 
the acquaintance of one who has done more to enlighten us on the 
Ornithology of India than any one who had ever gone before him— 
I mean Dr. Jerdon; and it is chiefly from the notes which I made in 
his book “ The Birds of India,'’ that I have got the information 
which I hope to lay before you this evening. Indeed, this book was 
