100 BIRDS. 



and noticed that their numbers from April to December con- 

 tinued steady. 



Writing in January 1888, Mr. Moodie-Heddle says that 

 Robins are not nearly so numerous in Orkney as formerly ; a 

 severe frost some ten years ago killed them in great numbers. 



In Walls and Hoy, Robins are three times as numerous in 

 the months after September as in summer. 



The only place where we saw the Redbreast in 1888 was 

 at Binscarth; they certainly were not as numerous as usual 

 that season. 



In April 1889 there seems to have been a perfect "rush" 

 of Redbreasts at the Pentland Skerries; Mr. Gilmour never 

 remembers to have seen so many. 



Sylvia rufa (Bodd.). Whitethroat. 



Gray says that the Whitethroat appears to have occurred once or 

 twice in Orkney and Shetland. We have no record from any 

 of our correspondents of this bird in the first-mentioned group, 

 and Gray gives nothing more than the bald statement. Morris 

 says that one was shot on Sanday, by the late Mr. Strang, on 

 May 25th, 1850. 



Sylvia atricapilla (L.). Blackcap. 



Since Baikie and Heddle wrote, several more specimens have been 

 recorded from Orkney, and from two correspondents we have 

 had notes as to their breeding near Kirkwall in two successive 

 years. 



Mr. T. W. Ranken's father heard one singing in his garden 

 on June 17, 1825, and the same gentleman saw one which had 

 been shot in Sanday on 22d of March of the same year. Three 

 are recorded from Melsetter; one was found dead in 1867, 

 another was shot 1st October 1868, after an easterly gale, and 

 a third was killed in 1872. 



As regards the occurrence of the Blackcap during the 

 breeding season, Mr. T. W. Ranken writes us : 



" A pair of Blackcaps were frequently seen at Grainbank 

 this summer (1886). I heard the male sing on several 



