2o6 TJie Scottish Naturalist. 



Scotland. A pair lingered a long time at one locality in East 

 Sutherland, but finally disappeared. These, of course, belonged 

 to the spring migration of 1-881, Now, how are we indebted 

 for such an unusual visitation so far west of the continent of 

 Europe at this season ? My idea— theory, if you will — is as 

 follows: As we have shown in our Report for 1880 that birds 

 were carried further west than usual by the easterly gales of the 

 autumn of that year, the consequence of this was that the birds 

 wintered at localities further west than usual, and also returned 

 to their breeding haunts by routes removed farther west than 

 usual in the following spring. 



It may be said it is a pity to advance theories without suffi- 

 cient bases of facts in such matters, and doing so might perhaps 

 be characterised as unscientific ; but I advance it in what I 

 believe to be the interest of our inquiry, whether correct or 

 erroneous ; because what we want is more general attention 

 to the meteorological necessities of our investigation, and a 

 wider appreciation by our reporters and those who are assisting 

 us of the necessity of a comparison of the data, year with year, 

 in the future. It is on this account that I would urge the 

 mapping out of the distribution of the occurrences of rare Con- 

 tinental forms in Britain, year after year, and also the com- 

 parison of these annual maps, the one with the other, and with 

 the meteorological facts of each year. 



Mr J. J. Dalgleish and Mr Freke are doing good work in 

 enumerating all the occurrences of American birds in Europe 

 and mapping them out, and vice %>ersa. It would be desirable 

 to extend this plan to all specimens of the rarer Continental 

 species in Britain, the meteorological data, and a corresponding 

 map of Europe, showing the northward range of these birds in 

 the breeding season. We ourselves have not time to devote 

 earnestly to this additional work, but we believe that the field 

 suggested would be sure to yield to any naturalist, taking it up 

 as a separate branch, a rich harvest in course of time. 



STOEM-PETEELS FOUND IN PEETHSHIKE. ' 



By COLONEL DRUMMOND HAY, C.M.Z.S. 



HAVE the pleasure of sending you notice of Leach's Fork- 

 tailed Petrel {Thalassidroma Lcadiii) as having been picked 

 up dead in Strathearn. in a field near Strathallan Castle, on Tues- 



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