AUTUMN BIRD NOTES FROM THE OUTER HEBRIDES 3 



SOME AUTUMN BIRD NOTES FROM THE 



OUTER HEBRIDES. 



By the Duchess of Bedford. 



As comparatively few Ornithologists visit the Outer 

 Hebrides in the month of November for bird-watching, the 

 following notes, made in Barra and South Uist between the 

 31st October and 8th November, may be of interest. 

 Fortunately, Barra boasts of resident observers who have 

 kept a very careful record of the birds for many years, but, 

 as migrants often spend but a day or two in passing, it is 

 not possible even for residents to note more than a small 

 proportion of their interesting visitors. 



At this time of year every day brings something 

 worthy of note, whether it be the arrival of regular winter 

 visitors, of rare stragglers, or the exceptionally late appear- 

 ance of summer migrants (on passage from Northern 

 Europe), which are generally supposed to have left the 

 British Islands several weeks earlier. Amongst these last 

 were three Wheatears, seen on the ist November, and a 

 Chiff-chaff on the 7th. Probably a great many of the 

 Chaffinches, Hedge Sparrows, Greenfinches, and Golden-crested 

 Wrens that were there in the beginning of the month were 

 also migrating. The only thick bit of shrubbery that I 

 know of on this island is a great attraction to these birds. 

 When visiting it on 3rd November my attention was at 

 once arrested by a little brown bird, which I at first took 

 for a Warbler. Its strikingly large eye, buff breast, and 

 some very conspicuous white about the tail puzzled me very 

 much, as the bird was so restless that I could not see 

 exactly where the white came. At last, however, it 

 obligingly perched on a wire fence only the width of a narrow 

 road from me, and I was able to see that with the exception 

 of the dark centre feathers the basal half of the tail was 

 white. I then recognized that it was either a female 

 or a young male Red - breasted Flycatcher {Altcscicapa 

 parvci). 



The Geese arrived much later than usual. On the 31st 



