ON THE FLORA OF SHETLAND 117 



away on the 4th January after a short illness. Mr. Linton's name 

 occurs frequently in the above paper, and I feel that I cannot let 

 the sad occasion pass without once more expressing my apprecia- 

 tion of his unfailing kindness, so fresh in my memory, as well as of 

 the very real and sound knowledge which he possessed of the 

 British Hierada. His place will be a hard one to fill. 



Since Mr. Linton is no longer with us, I think it right to add 

 a word of explanation concerning one point : after I had written 

 out the descriptions, etc., I sent the rough draft of the descriptive 

 portion to Mr. Linton, who looked over it but found no alterations 

 to suggest. The whole of the introductory portion was written 

 afterwards, and was not seen by Mr. Linton at all. W. H. B.] 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



Varieties of the Mole. The varieties received from the Mole- 

 catchers, who regularly consign such captures to me, during the past 

 year of 1907 have again been numerous. Yellow and cream in all 

 shades, those with yellow and buff patches and streaks on the abdo- 

 men comprise the range of variation, with one exception, which is a 

 female, with pelage of a uniform shade of bluish lead colour. I 

 have had this variety before, but never so bright and fine. Again, 

 as always, no whites in any form. ROBERT SERVICE, Maxwelltown. 



Large Otter. An Otter, stated to be 28 Ib. in weight, was 

 killed by Mr. John Tail, Kinbuck (Forth Area) on loth May 1907, 

 and recorded in "Strathearn Herald." I have once met with an 

 Otter killed in the Carron River, Dunipace, which weighed 26 Ib. 

 Record weights which are authentic are desirable. J. A. HARVIE- 

 BROWN. 



Bird Notes from Tiree. It may interest you to hear that there 

 are 14 Mute Swans here. Twelve of them came at the beginning 

 of July and they were joined later by two others. These Mute 

 Swans that come here in summer do not stay in winter with 

 the exception of one pair which has remained here for several 

 years ; but they do not associate with the Wild Swans. 



I have not seen any new birds. The migration season was 

 about as usual, except that there has been a great scarcity of Red- 

 wings this autumn. I have not seen half a dozen, whereas they 

 used to be swarming all over the place in November. [This is 

 interesting, seeing that Redwings have been unusually abundant on 

 the East Coast of Scotland, and were recorded as appearing suddenly 

 in large numbers near Ullapool. J. A. H.-B.] A good Redwing 



