66 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



from 1884 to 1902. Mr Roebuck was president of the 

 Yorkshire Naturalists' Union in 1903, and of the Lincolnshire 

 Naturalists' Union in 1909-10. Such is a very brief sketch 

 of a strenuous and remarkable life devoted to the service of 

 natural science in Yorkshire, and his loss will be long felt by 

 naturalists throughout the county and beyond. 



Hebridean or Continental Song Thrush ? ^We have been 

 much interested in reading Mr Jourdain's note on old references 

 to racial forms of the Song Thrush. May we venture to suggest 

 that W. L.'s " smaller and darker thrushes . . . seen resting and 

 feeding on migration in spring " on the Yarrow in April were birds 

 of the typical form Turdiis philonielits philoiiieliis, passing on their 

 way to their nesting places on the Continent. It is well known 

 that this form occurs in Scotland on its spring passage, and we 

 know from personal observation that the typical Song-thrush looks 

 smaller and darker when seen in the field than do our home-bred 

 birds. The fact that W. L. states that his birds were " less 

 conspicuously mottled on the breast," points to these migrants 

 being T. ph. philomelus, whereas the breast spots of the Hebridean 

 T. ph. hehridensis are noticeably larger and more numerous than 

 those of T. ph. clarkei. It is indeed a sign of keen observation on 

 the part of this Selkirkshire naturalist that he should have noticed 

 the difference in the field between such closely allied races before 

 they had been differentiated by our men of science. We, ourselves, 

 have frequently studied all three races in the field, and were struck 

 by the fact that while the typical form looks darker, smaller, and 

 slimmer than our T. ph. clarkei, the Hebridean sub-species, although 

 darker in colouring looks fully as large as, if not larger, than our 

 breeding birds on the Scottish mainland, and the very heavy 

 spotting on the breast is always very noticeable. 



W. L. was William Laidlaw, born 19th November 1780. Captain 

 H. S. Gladstone, in his Birds of Du?/ifrit'sshire, writes of him as 

 follows : " The friend, factor and amanuensis of Sir Walter Scott ; " 

 an author of lyrics ; compiled under the direction of his patron part 

 of the Edinburgh Amiual Register dXttx 1817 ; an able and observant 

 field naturalist, who above his initials W. L. frequently contributed to 

 the Magazine nf Natural History notably articles concerning eagles 

 at Loch Skene. He died at Marybank near Balnagowan on iSth 

 May 1845. Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul and Evelyn V. Baxter. 



