Letters, Announcements, ^c. 349 



therefore sceptical as to the former being really an Asiatic 

 species, and cannot but think it more probable that the 

 specimen described by Mr. Taczanowski is a young female 

 of A. palumhar'ius. 



1 may take the opportunity of observing that the White 

 Goshawk, for which Dr. Dybowski has proposed the appro- 

 priate name of "" candidissimus,'' would seem to be the same 

 as that which was described as "Accipiter astur Q " in the 

 Zoogr. Rosso-As. of Pallas, vol. i. p. 370. It is, however, 

 worthy of remark that Pallas describes the colour of the iris 

 as " flavissima " and Dybowski as " brunnea.^^ 



Yours &c., 



J. H. GURNEY. 



SiRSj — Can you give space for the following argument and 

 actual record of a very rare Scottish bird? The enclosed 

 slips explain my object in pressing for the adoption of a 

 uniform method of recording rare occurrences of birds and 

 other migrational phenomena. 



I do not desire to force my method upon anybody, be he 

 editor, or journalist, or natural historian of any area ; I only 

 wish to test its usefulness, and to arrive at uniformity of 

 method, w^hether my plan, or a better matured one, be 

 adopted. Originality has its charms, no doubt, but utility 

 of method I hold cannot be overrated. 



I send this record in the form proposed (p. 350), and I 

 also instance how easy it is to extend from it for more 

 popular or, it may be, for more permanent historical record. 



Scotland. Record No. 2. Duplicate. 



Being a full text of the Record, written out 

 direct from the Form. 



On March 31st, 1884, at Pentland Skerries, in the Pent- 

 land Firth, Ruticilla titys (the Black Redstart) — a fine adult 

 male — was shot by Mr, John Gilmour, lighthouse-keeper, at 

 the locality named : it was roughly skinned, and sent to J. 



