STARLINGS OF SHETLAND, FAIR ISLE, AND ST KILDA 185 



plumage peculiarity of both the Faroese and Shetland races. 

 Similarly coloured birds have been obtained in areas far 

 removed from these northern islands, namely, at Kew in 

 Surrey, and at Spean Bridge in West Inverness-shire (23rd 

 June 1903); and it is probably at present more prevalent 

 than is suspected. It would seem that in its first plumage 

 the Starling is dichromatic, and that while the dark phase is 

 more frequent among the birds of the northern archipelagoes 

 of Faroe and Shetland than elsewhere, it is not confined to 

 them. On the other hand, since the brown phase occurs in 

 Fair Isle, which ranks as the southmost of the Shetland 

 group, there can be little doubt that it also occurs among 

 the birds on the other islands of the archipelago, which are 

 only a few miles farther north and in sight of it. 



An interesting fact deserves to be mentioned concerning 

 these insular Starlings, namely, that although the}' are 

 sedentary (they are not known to quit their native isles), yet 

 their wing measurements are in excess of those of the typical 

 form, vast numbers of which bi-annually undertake extensive 

 migratory journeys between their summer quarters and their 

 winter retreats. As a rule the wings of birds peculiar to 

 islands are shorter and more rounded than in those species 

 or forms which are more widely distributed, W. E. C. 



Great Spotted Woodpecker in ArgyU. In July 1919 Sir 

 Archibald Campbell sent me for preservation a female example of 

 Dryobates major, which had unfortunately found its way into a trap 

 at Minard on the 15th of the month. In response to a request for 

 further information, Mr Rae, who has been keeper there for over 

 twenty-five years, tells me that he has never seen the bird there 

 before, but he thinks it may have nested in some old birches near 

 the place where it was accidentally trapped. This bird is new to 

 the avifauna of Argyll and Western Scotland generally, as a summer 

 and presumably a resident species. Charles Kirk, Glasgow. 



The Status of the Redshank in the Outer Hebrides. 



Referring to the above species on p. 227 of the B.O.U. list (1915) 

 we find the following remarks : " A resident, generally distributed 

 during the breeding season, though less common in the Shetland 

 Islands and in Wales, and rare in the Outer Hebrides." 



95 AND 96 X 



