76 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 
Lapland Bluethroat at Fair Isle.—Through the kindness of 
Dr Eagle Clarke, I recently had the opportunity of examining 
carefully the series of Redspotted Bluethroats from Fair Isle in 
the collection of the Royal Scottish Museum. Of late years the 
Bluethroats which breed in Northern Europe have been separated 
into two subspecies—Lrithacus suecicus gaetkei from the Norwegian 
Mountains, and the typical form £. s. swecicus from Lapland 
and Northern Russia. The former is the race which one expects 
to meet with on the coasts of Britain. The series in the Royal 
Scottish Museum bears out that expectation, but amongst the 
skins is one entirely referable to the Lapland race. It is that 
of a male, obtained on 25th May 1910. The wing measurement 
is 7o mm. and the distance between the secondaries and the tip of 
the wing is 11-12 mm. Dr Eagle Clarke informs me that this 
bird was the last of the species observed that spring on the island. 
This form has only once before been recorded as occurring in 
the British Isles, viz. Isle of May, 14th September 1909. (Vide 
Misses Rintoul and Baxter, Scot. Wat., 1912, p. 236).—J. H. 
STENHOUSE, Edinburgh. 
Breeding of the Red Admiral Butterfly (Pyrameis 
atalanta) in Scotland.—In view of the note on the supposed 
immigration of this butterfly in 1920 (vide p. 28 of the January- 
February issue of the Scottish Naturalist), it is perhaps worth 
putting on record that on 22nd September last I had to visit 
Dunfermline on business, and, having a little leisure about midday, 
I paid a visit to the flower gardens in the Carnegie Park—it was 
a beautiful, sunny, warm, autumn day—and had the pleasure of 
seeing three or four specimens of the Red Admiral busy flitting 
about the flower-beds; so busy were they with the flowers that I 
was able to stand not a foot away from the largest and finest 
specimen for many minutes, watching its evolutions. All the 
specimens were in such perfect condition that I cannot suppose 
they were immigrants; it was practically certain that they must 
have been bred in the immediate neighbourhood. Mr South 
appears to think that the spring specimens of the Painted Lady 
and the Red Admiral are immigrants, and, therefore, apparently 
the autumn specimens are the progeny of these spring immigrants. 
—T. Hupson BrEareE. 
[Prof. Beare’s supposition is supported by my discovery of 
advanced larve of this species in August last on nettles by the 
Braid Burn, Edinburgh, where in September and October several 
of the butterflies themselves were seen.—W. E. | 
