NOTES ON SOME SCOTTISH BIRDS OBSERVED IN I915 77 



The interest in the present record is farther enhanced 

 by the facts that the specimen belongs to the Continental 

 dark form, Flauiinea Jlaninica guttata, and that it is the 

 first known instance of the visit of a bird of this race to 

 Scotland. In England, where it is regarded as a rare 

 immigrant, it has occurred in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Oxon, 

 Norfolk, Yorkshire, and Northumberland. The example 

 recorded as having recently been obtained in Berkshire 

 on 2 1st November 191 5, from the description given of it, 

 seems to be an intermediate form, and is not to be regarded 

 as a full coloured characteristic example of the Continental 

 dark-breasted race. The Edinburgh Museum received a 

 similar example, which had been captured in Cornwall on 

 20th September 191 5. Both these birds were probably 

 visitors from the opposite side of the Channel, where the 

 light-breasted, dark-breasted, and intermediate forms are 

 known to occur. 



The Dark-breasted Barn Owl is a native of South 

 Sweden; Denmark; and Central Europe, west to France, and 

 south to the Alps, Austria, and Hungary. In France it 

 intergrades with the typical white-breasted form. The 

 Shetland specimen has the upper parts blue -grey, finely 

 vermiculated with greyish white ; and each feather having 

 two spots of white towards the tip, one terminal and 

 the other subterminal, and having a dark spot between 

 them and a smaller one above. Facial disc silvery white 

 tinged with orange and vinous brown in the centre, and has 

 a dark vinous spot in front of the eyes ; the rim of the disc 

 golden buff, each feather with a dusky centre streak, and 

 its lower third brownish orange. Under-parts warm orange- 

 buff, with clearly defined small blackish spots on the abdomen 

 and larger double spots on the flanks. Wings and tail with 

 broad bars of dark vermiculated grey and orange brown. 



III. The Water-rail at St Kilda. 



The Water-rail {Rallus aquatiais), though not previously 

 recorded for St Kilda, has probably occurred there as a bird 

 of passage, since it is a native and migratory species in 



