52 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



assistant, from ist September to 8th October, and met with quite 

 unlooked-for success. I was quite prepared to obtain negative 

 evidence, or very little more, of the visits of migratory birds at 

 such a far-western and remote station remotest of all in the 

 British seas. Fortunately the reverse happened, and no less than 

 54 species of birds on passage came under my notice. Of these 35 

 were new to the avifauna of the island, or an addition of 50 per cent 

 to the species that had been previously known to occur there. 

 Among the birds observed were a number of surprises species 

 which had not previously been recorded for Western Scotland, while 

 the American Pipit (Anthus pensylvanicus] is new to the British 

 fauna, and the Marsh Warbler (Acrocephalus palustris} to that of 

 Scotland. A full account of the result of these investigations is in 

 preparation, and will be published in due course. WM. EAGLE 

 CLARKE. 



Bird Notes from Tiree. The larger race of Wheatear (Saxuola 

 cenanthe) may now have Tiree added to the localities frequented 

 by it on autumn migration. On 8th October 1910, Mr. Peter 

 Anderson shot two specimens and sent them to me at Dunipace. 

 Mr. Anderson writes : " The Common Wheatears left here some 

 time ago, and a crowd of this variety have come along within the 

 last 10 days. They have been all along over the rocky, heathery, 

 barren ground. Their antics on the ground are the same as the 

 Common Wheatear, but the alarm note is different from the ' chuk, 

 chuk,' of that bird. But," adds Mr. Anderson, " perhaps the season 

 of the year may account for that. I have seen more than a hundred 

 of them within the last week, and they are all the same as these two." 



Mr. Anderson on iyth October sent me a White Wagtail in full 

 winter garb not a common phase of plumage to find them in in 

 localities usually frequented by migrants. Along with Mr. Gladstone 

 and Mr. R. Service (" Birds of Dumfriesshire ") one may wonder 

 whether new lines of migration (or lest objection be taken to that 

 expression, let us say new haunts discovered] have been followed by 

 the species in their natural increase in numbers ; or if the species 

 had been overlooked by earlier writers and present-day observers. 

 So far as Tiree is concerned, I cannot believe that Mr. Anderson 

 has overlooked its distinctive points, as he has been acquainted 

 with those migrants across Tiree as long ago as 1871. 



The usual migration along portions of the West Coast has been 

 in some measure watched and reported on by Mr. Anderson. 

 Thrushes, Blackbirds, Robins, all arrived last week (i.e. the week 

 previous to iyth October, the date of his last communication, to date 

 of 22nd October). This migration is the same swing of the wave 

 which strikes at Monach Isles, and along the west coast of the 

 Long Island between Butt of Lewis and Monach, and which throws 

 out stragglers, on a still more extended wing, as far as the lone isle 



