RETURN TO LIBRARY OF MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY WOODS HOLE, MASS. LOANED BY AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY The Annals OF Scottish Natural History A QUARTERLY MAGAZINE WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED Uaturaltet EDITED BY J. A. HARVIE-BROWN, F.R.S.E., F.Z.S. MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION JAMES W. H. TRAIL, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN AND WILLIAM EAGLE CLARKE, F.L.S., MEM. BRIT. ORN. UNION NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENT, MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND ART, EDINBURGH 1895 EDINBURGH DAVID DOUGLAS, CASTLE STREET LONDON: R. H. PORTER, 18 PRINCES ST., CAVENDISH SQUARE LIST OF PLATES Francis Buchanan White, M.D. Frontispiece. I. Map illustrating the Distribution of the Starling. II. Leptopsyllus robertsoni, sp. nov., and L. minor, sp. nov. III. Map illustrating Report on the Little Auk. IV. Canthocamptus schmeilii, Mrazek, and C. mini/tus, Clans. The Annals of Scottish Natural History NO. 13] 1895 [JANUARY FRANCIS BUCHANAN WHITE, M.D., F.L.S. IT is our sad duty to record the death, on 3rd December i 894, at Perth, of one who has for the greater part of his life been a very potent force in the great advance that has been made in our knowledge of the fauna and flora of Scotland. His wide and accurate acquaintance with animals and plants alike, of many groups the knowledge of which is in these days usually distributed among numerous specialists, and his readiness to place that knowledge at the service of all who sought his aid, early made him recognised as a leader in his favourite studies. But the respect felt for his abilities soon ripened into a warmer regard on the part of his correspondents, who felt the healthy stimulus of contact with him. Dr. Buchanan White spent several summers in different of Scotland in the of natural parts practical study history ; but his memory will be linked especially with his native city, Perth. It was chiefly due to him that the Perthshire Society of Natural Science was founded in I 867, and that its museum is a model of what such a museum should be. He was the " " " founder of the Scottish Naturalist," of which the Annals is the descendant. We hope in our April number to give a more adequate sketch of his great services to natural history in Scotland, with an enumeration of his varied writings. 13 B 2 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY THE STARLING IN SCOTLAND, ITS INCREASE AND DISTRIBUTION. F.R.S.E. BY J. A. HARVIE-BROWN, PLATE I. OUR British Ornithologists have long been aware that the that subject of our present remarks has had a history, and its increase and extension of range present some interesting and phenomenal facts. An examination of already published accounts in great measure renders this evident, as we hope to show in somewhat more detailed manner than has hitherto been done. We desire to place on record a consecutive account of its steps of advance, before it becomes too late to gather up and arrange the more important minutiae which are at our disposal in the year of grace 1 894. Were this be missed and future workers not done, points might ; besides, find their time taken up by traversing imperfectly worked ground in the past. We hope then to afford a new starting- point by this paper. Nevertheless, of the incompleteness of our attempt, perhaps no one can be more fully aware than ourselves. Introduction of the Species. If any important introduc- tions of this bird have ever taken place anywhere in Scot- to trace but throw out land, we have been unable them ; we the hint for other inquirers, as we do know that the Starling, just according to its rarity, was more kept as a pet-bird some forty years ago than it is now. Alternating Waves ofAdvance and Retreat. Some curious statistics appear in evidence of what we may be allowed to term alternating waves of advance and retreat. If, as appears from our earlier records, the Starling was at one time more abundant in the barren portions of our northern districts, such as Shetland, Orkney, north of Caithness, and the Outer Hebrides, than it was in the east and south-east and middle districts of Scotland, or the well-wooded areas of the south, there seems to be some reason for carefully considering Whence originally came the Starlings which peopled our northern of Scotland and what this distribution portions ; bearing SCOT. AT. HIST. 1895. PLATE l. Isles Shetland _ . n 6O Ulfet NEaf Orkney-* Fa i r I ." <A ORKN EY ISLES - Pornonaj RLAND R- H AT T \ r ; E E OJ MAP OF -.-W A KIRKCUDIBRIGHT TO ILLUSTRATE M?HARVIE BROWN'S PAPER ON THE STAR LI NG GLAND Faunal Areas thus County Boundaries thus Scale of English Miles from Ti'me Immemorial a 10 10 30 *o so STARLING IN SCOTLAND, INCREASE AND DISTRIBUTION 3 may have had upon the allied subject of migration ? Again, our later statistics show to us that a separate impulse appears to have been given to a wave of dispersal from the south, which advanced north along our south-west coasts and counties, and then apparently to some extent retreated again. In con- nection with these data we may ask the questions : Do our birds which were formerly migrants only, but have since become resident and breeding species within our area extend their from their autumn or breeding areas, resulting movements ; do do from their movements they so, resulting spring only ; or do they do so, resulting from combined observations and experiences gathered upon both spring and autumn journeys ? (See under Dee and Caithness notes, infra, pp. 18 and 21.) We believe, after some study of migrational phenomena, that there is a possibility that, as increase of breeding area of a species extends along the longitudes between north and south on the continents of Europe and Asia, so will there likely be an increase of latitudinal dispersal along the routes of migrants from east to west coming to the shores of Great Britain from the Continent and resultant ; upon this, at least in some degree, there may be a corresponding increase of nesting localities north and south in our islands. Of this we may perhaps instance the well-known increase of the woodcock as a nesting species within the last thirty years, extending even, as it now does, to the barren hills and hollows of the Outer Hebrides. Thus, likely localities, viewed first in autumn then flight, and again in spring flight, may be re- visited and finally occupied, however long a period may have passed before such became and continued as established residences. Of a gradual pressure from congested centres within our islands own we have already given instances in other places, showing how lines of least resistance are followed, which are or equivalent, nearly so, to occupation of the most likely localities, first by a species pressing forward, though it has never previously migrated over the country (see under " in If Capercaillie Scotland "). congested centres occur as they must do of certain species in Britain, congested districts likewise, and under the same natural laws, must also occur on the or on continental Continent, large areas ; 4 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY and if congestion results in extension north and south or east and west (as in the case of Pallas' Sand Grouse), or if climatal phenomena be the principal factors apart from con- gestion, then a corresponding wave of dispersal must take place, expanding and increasing according to the force of the outburst, density of the congestion, or violence of meteorological change, and reaching farther with each successive outburst How far the above remarks may be held as applicable to the species presently being treated of, may become when we unite the links of our chain apparent ; but we must leave to the study of many similar migrational and distri- butional phenomena, any final results indicating a general law. The present distribution of the Starling on the Continent " and generally, we shortly epitomise from Dresser's Birds of Europe," vol. iv. p. 405. In Scandinavia it is common, and abundant on the coast regions of Nordland : less abundant in Lofoten, and is very " rare north of these islands. At Tromsoe it is repeatedly " observed in spring and autumn (thus a migrant). Stray individuals are met with in East Finmark, and found winter- ing as far north as Vseroe in Lofoten. In Sweden it does not range so far north as in Norway, "not being found above Northern Angermanland and Umea in 64 N. It occurs commonly in South and West Finland, but not in the north and north-east portions. It is rare in the Archangel Govern- ment in North Russia, but general in Central Russia and common in the South and the Ural, south of 67 N., and eastwards through Eastern Siberia and India. The allied forms 5. purpurascens, Gould, 5. nitens, Hume, being com- local races paratively geographical (cf. Dresser, op. cit.} But perhaps nowhere is the Starling so abundant as in the plains of Holland. The above Continental dispersal, even at the date of Dresser's great work, surely indicates the extension along the parallels or slightly across them from east to west or south of east to north of west, which has been shown is the direction of present general migration of many species, from IN STARLING SCOTLAND, INCREASE AND DISTRIBUTION 5 a colder area to a warmer, a wintering within the influence of the Gulf Stream both on the coast of Norway and in our isles.