12 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



about six adult examples were observed fishing at the mouth of 

 Grutness Voe. 



This species appears to be a summer visitor to the Orkneys, 

 so that its appearance at the southern extremity of Shetland 

 cannot be regarded as a matter for surprise. 



GREAT SKUA, Megalesfris catarrhactes . Single examples of the 

 Great Skua were observed down to the 2oth. As we did not 

 see this species daily, it is quite possible that it tarried in 

 Southern Shetland beyond that date. Saxby, however, remarks 

 on one brought to him on the 26th September that it was a 

 most unusually late date for it to occur. 



LITTLE GREBE, Podicipes fluviatilis. A pair was seen at the head 

 of Loch Spiggie on the gth. 



There can be little doubt that Mr. T. Henderson's opinion 

 that it breeds there is a correct one. 



NOTES ON THE WHITE WAGTAIL (MOTACILLA 

 ALBA, L.) IN THE SOUTH-EAST OF SCOT- 

 LAND. 



By WILLIAM EVANS, F.R.S.E. 



MR. EAGLE CLARKE'S most instructive summary of the 

 Movements of this bird, contained in the Migration Com- 

 mittee's Third Interim Report (1900) to the British Associa- 

 tion, calls attention once more to the lack of records regard- 

 ing it from the east coast of Britain. Perhaps, therefore, 

 the following notes with respect to the Forth area, put 

 together a couple of years ago, may not be devoid of interest 

 at this time. 



Status in Forfh. A regular spring and autumn visitor, 

 occurring, as a rule, in considerable numbers at both seasons. 



The true Motacilla alba of Linnaeus, of which our 

 familiar Pied Wagtail (M. lugubris, Temm.) is little more 

 than a dark western race, evidently came under the notice of 

 Macgillivray, in the south of Scotland, nearly three-quarters 

 of a century ago ; and Gray, in his " Birds of the West of 

 Scotland," claims to have shot an example on the shore at 

 Dunbar "in the winter of 1847," while, according to an 

 entry in his MS. note-book, two were seen by him at Burnt- 



