7754 Birds. 



Whitethroat {S. cinerea). Several seen at Buness and Halligarth, June 9 ; wind 

 S.W. (New to Shetland). 



YeWowhummev {Einberiza cilrimlla). May 26; wind S.W. 



Crossbill {Loxia curvirostra). Two families visited the garden at Halligarth, 

 June 30; wind N.W. since the 17th. From among them I shot one equal in size to 

 an adult male, and in the green and gray plumage of a first year's bird, but having 

 both greater and lesser wing^-coverts dull white. 



Jay (Corvus glandarius). August 26 ; wind N.W. 



Spotted Woodpecker {Picus major). September 3 : I shot two in the garden at 

 Halligarth, the wind having been blowing steadily from the S.E. since the 1st. One 

 is a full-grown male, the other a young male of the year. This species sometimes 

 occurs in Orkney, but has not hitherto been recorded as a visitor to Shetland. 



Hoopoe {Upupa epops). On the loih of August, during a strong E. wind, I saw 

 one upon the side of a hill, within a few hundred yards of the spot where, on the 21st 

 of August last year, I shot the individual of the same species which so puzzled some 

 of my friends as it suddenly appeared before them in the dusk (Zool. 7341). On the 

 27th of September following I observed another near the head of Balta Sound, fljing, 

 or rather fluttering, apparently with some difiicully, in the very face of a stiff breeze 

 from N.E. 



Martin {Hirundo urhica). May 31 ; wind S E. Balta Sound and a hill above the 

 Loch of Cliff. Others were seen about the same time in various parts of the island. 



Swift {Cypselus apus). July 18 ; wind S.W. Haroldswick and Balta Sound. 



Nightjar (Caprimulgus europceus). July 28 ; wind light and variable. Halligarth. 



I observe that in ray ' Notes on the Birds of Belgium ' two trifling misprints have 

 occurred. P. 7541, line 14 from bottom, for " seed-beds" read " reed-beds ;" p. 7628, 

 line 20 from top, for " Quarlres" read " Quatier." — Henry L. Saxby ; Balta Sound, 

 Shetland, September 4, 1861. 



While Variety of the Song Thrush and Bullfinch. — The first nest contained four 

 birds, one white and three of the usual brown colour. This white bird was taken 

 when only partly fledged, the first week in April. The second nest contained only 

 three birds, all white, and these were hatched May 24lh. The third nest contained 

 four birds, hatched just five weeks after, one of them white, two brown, and one brown 

 with some of the tail and wing feathers marked with white. Of the white birds two 

 were affected in an extraordinary manner during a severe thunderstorm we had here a 

 short time ago. One in particular, whenever there was a probability of a change of 

 weather and the atmosphere was lowering, would sit down and gasp in a convulsive 

 manner ; and it seemed to get worse with age. Although it ate well, it wasted away 

 to a skeleton, and I had to have it killed. The other is not injured to so great a 

 degree. It was affected in the head, and its under eyelid is contracted a little. 

 Whtn this storm happened the birds wereMn a cottage, and several bullfinches, night- 

 ingales and canaries were killed. Mr. Fletcher, of Albrighton, near Wolverhampton, 

 informs me that he exhibited at the Crystal Palace, in 1858, a white thrush with pink 

 eyes and yellow legs : my birds have red legs, and the eyes are of a dark cornelian 

 colour. A few days ago a white bullfinch was shot in this neighbourhood.— JoA« 

 Marshall ; Belmont, Taunton, September 18, 1861. 



