REPORT ON SCOTTISH ORNITHOLOGY IN 1909 133 



Weather Report of the Meteorological Office for our 

 meteorological data. 



SPECIES NEW TO SCOTLAND. 



It is not by any means an easy matter to add a new 

 species to the avifauna of a country as well worked by 

 competent observers as Scotland. This year, however, two 

 additions have been made, one in spring the other in 

 autumn. Foremost among these is the Eastern Pied Chat 

 {Saxicola pleschanka] a bird which is not only new to the 

 fauna of Scotland but to that of the British Isles. A 

 female of this remarkable visitor was procured on the 

 Isle of May on the ipth October, and its occurrence 

 recorded and the specimen figured in the Annals for 

 January of the current year. It was in the white-throated 

 plumage described by Hemprich and Ehrenberg as 5. vittata. 

 The second of these novelties is the White-spotted Blue-throat 

 (Cyanecula cyanecula), a fine adult male having been obtained 

 on the Fair Isle. This bird nests in Central Europe, has 

 only occurred in England as a very rare straggler, and has 

 not been recorded before from Scotland. In Heligoland, 

 too, it has seldom been met with, except in 1877, when it 

 occurred there in considerable numbers. 



BIRDS NEW TO FAUNAL AREAS, AND UNCOMMON 



VISITORS. 



Under this section we propose to take not only the 

 birds which are uncommon visitors to Scotland, but any 

 which are rare or previously unknown, in the faunal area from 

 which they are reported. As will be seen, a large proportion 

 of the birds which come under this heading, are recorded for 

 the Fair Isle and Isle of May. The small size of these 

 islands renders it possible to watch the new immigrants from 

 day to day, while the absence of trees and shrubs limits the 

 amount of covert in which the birds can conceal themselves. 

 In the case of the Fair Isle we have had the advantage of 

 the observations of a watcher, Stewart Stout, the year round. 



The work which has been accomplished during the last 

 few years has greatly changed the status of some of our 



