448.. 



ON THE ISLES OF SCILLY. 



Eeed Warblers alluded to therein (Bidwell, Trans. Norfolk and 

 Norwich Nat. Soc. vol. iv. p. 204) were seen by a former keeper, 

 David Smith. Mr. Jenkinson states that the former frequented 

 a reed-bed below the Abbey road for about a fortnight, at the end 

 of September, 1883. Smith, I was told, had a very good know- 

 ledge of birds, but, as it was not obtained, its identity can 

 hardly be considered as proved. 



Mr. Dorrien Smith has begun a collection of Scillonian Birds to 

 which, since Mr. Bidwell's visit, has been added White's Thrush, 

 (Turdus vartus, Pall), shot by his butler, Mr. G. Britton, on 

 December 2nd, 1886. This is the eighteenth British specimen. It 

 frequented the Abbey garden for three weeks ; November is there- 

 fore the month which should be accredited with it, and not December. 

 Ten of the eighteen British specimens have been killed in January, 

 and of two the date is not known. There is an undoubted 

 tendency among birds of the eastern Palaearctic regions, when 

 they do come here, to visit us about mid-winter. Its general 

 haunt was, Mr. Britton informed us, the Long walk, among the 

 Dracaenas, just the place which this ground-feeding Thrush 

 would choose ; in fact, from their habits in this respect, they have 

 been more than once mistaken for Woodcocks. 



The latest published List of the Birds of the Scillies is that by 

 the Eev. E. W. J. Smart, contained in the Transactions of the 

 Penzance Natural History Society for 1885 86 ; in which, besides 

 his own observations, are incorporated those of Mr. A. Pechell, 

 Messrs. J. H. and F. Jenkinson, and Mr. F. E. Eodd. It is not 

 a lengthy article, and, did space allow, I should like to have made 

 some remarks upon it, but fear, lest my pen should occupy more 

 than its share of our Transactions. The Eufous and Great Eeed 

 Warbler are not included, and only two occurrences of the Grey- 

 headed Wagtail, of which we saw a fine male, are given. It is 

 doubtful if the Chough has ever been seen, and no Jay has ever 

 visited Scilly, which is odd, as they are such well-known North 

 Sea migrants, and occasionally occur on the island of Heligoland 

 in great numbers.* 



Strange to say, none of the old writers on the Scilly Islands, 

 from Botoner (1478) to Borlase (1758 59), have anything to say 

 about the Manx Shearwater (Puffinus anglorum, Tern.), and it is 

 * I saw a plumassier's shop there full of Jays' wings. 



