BIRDS. 99 



from place to place, still clinging to the wall, when I shot 

 it. Mr. Eanken and Dr. Duguid identified it. I took the 

 little bird and a very fine specimen of the Waxwing to Wick 

 with me in 1866. I took over to H. Osborne the two birds, 

 and he has no doubt as to the Redstart being the black one. 

 I had previously shot the common Redstart in 1852. What 

 happened to the specimen was this : the cat one day, supposing 

 it was something to eat, got hold g of it and so destroyed it, that 

 it was no longer fit as a specimen." (W. Reid, in lit. 11/4/88.) 



We have alluded in a former work to the occurrence of the 

 Black Redstart in the Pentland Skerries. 1 Since then Mr. 

 Gilmour has sent us a note of another seen by him there, on 

 April 24, 1889. 



Sub-family SYLVIIN^E. 

 Erithacus rubecula (L.). Redbreast. 

 Ore. = Robin. (B. and H. ) 



Resident in Low's time, and now breeds on several of the islands, 

 as Hoy, Rousay, and the Mainland, though in the latter it 

 appears more local. 



Mr. Ranken states that, though his father did not appear 

 to have seen many about Kirkwall, it has now become common 

 and indigenous there, and a pair generally nest in his garden. 



Mr. Irvine-Fortescue considers it rare at Swanbister, 

 and that it is not such a confiding bird in Orkney as farther 

 south. A pair seem to have bred there in 1889, as a young 

 one was frequently seen. 



Mr. W. Watt says they are rarely to be seen at Skaill, and 

 then only a chance one, when frost and snow continue severe 

 for longer than usual. 



At Sanday it appears only on migration in October, and 

 Mr. Harvey says that it cannot live there in winter, though 

 he adds in another note that on the 28th of January 1888 he 

 saw two or three Robins in his garden. 



In 1883, Buckley found it common and resident in Rousay, 



1 Fauna of Sutherland, Caithness, and West Cromarty, p. 107. 



