54 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Red-backed Shrike in the Moray Area On 4th September 

 1919, I saw and obtained by the shore near Portmahornack, Ross- 

 shire, a juvenile Red-backed Shrike. I beheve this to be the first 

 authenticated record of tliis species for above area. Annie C. 

 Jackson, Swordale, Evanton. 



Imitative Powers of the Whinchat. In the Scottish 

 Naturalist for 19x6, p. 282, Mr. J- Robertson contributed some 

 observations relative to the Whinchat imitating some of the notes 

 of the Swallow, and in the same magazine for 1919, p. 195, he 

 states that he heard a Whinchat near Giffnock, on 22nd May 191 7, 

 imitate the call-note of the Pied Wagtail, the chatter of the Sand 

 Martin, the ratchety note of the Wren, the song of the Corn 

 Bunting, especially the jangling part at the end, and the call-note 

 of the Redshank, while another Whinchat imitated the song of 

 other species of birds. These bring to my mind that I and my 

 brother a good many years ago heard a Whinchat at Wilsden 

 imitating a good many species of birds chiefly, I believe, their 

 call-notes which we both took to be a Whitethroat at a distance, 

 but on a nearer approach we discovered it to be, without any 

 possibility of a doubt, a Whinchat. Some years later when 

 passing through a meadow on the western side of the village, I 

 saw another Whinchat perched on an old wall, and it allowed me 

 to approach within a very few yards, and whilst I stood it poujed 

 forth such a flood of song, imitative of other birds, as quite to 

 enthral me, even more than the bird mentioned above. The 

 attitude of the bird while singing indicated great excitement in 

 every motion. E. P. Butterfield, Wilsden, Yorkshire. 



Whooper Swans in Scotland in Summer. With regard 

 to Dr Eagle Clarke's notes on "Wild Swans observed in the 

 Western Highlands in Summer," the following observations may 

 possibly be of interest. On 24th May 19 18 I saw a single 

 Whooper Swan {^Cygniis musicus') on a loch in North Uist; again 

 on 24th August of the same year, while fishing on a sea pool, two 

 flew low over my head. They were travelling in a westerly direction. 

 On I St May 1919 a pair of Whoopers settled on a small freshwater 

 loch. All the above notes relate to North Uist. I have seen Wild 

 Swans in Benbecula in the summer months, and I am told 

 on good authority that there are Wild Swans all the year round 

 on Loch Bee in South Uist. George Beveridge, Vallay, 

 North Uist. 



