THE BLUE-THROATED WARBLER IN SCOTLAND. 451 
although they are all quite as tame as the old ones, and, having 
the advantage of being able to fly, get much the best of the 
scramble for food. Lately four have been in constant attendance, 
and as they are all of different ages they make a very interesting 
group, showing the various changes of plumage, the youngest being 
the bird of the year, and the oldest just assuming adult plumage, 
which will be complete this moult. 
I have not been so successful with the Common Gull, Larus 
canus, as with the Herring Gull, for although they have frequently 
nested and laid eggs they have never been lucky enough to hatch 
them, partly owing to Rooks and Herring Gulls, both of which 
are constantly on the look-out to suck their eggs, and are 
frequently successful. 
The little Black-headed Gull, Larus ridibundus, has never 
attempted nesting nor laid eggs, though I have had a good many 
of these birds on the pond for some time. They go through their 
regular changes of plumage, assuming their black heads about 
February, and now (at the end of September) they have completed 
their winter plumage. 
ON THE OCCURRENCE IN SCOTLAND OF THE 
BLUE-THROATED WARBLER. 
By J. A. Harviz Brown, F.R.S.E., F.Z.5S. 
On the 24th September of the present year I received a box 
containing three birds which were captured during the two 
previous days at the lantern of the Isle of May lighthouse, in the 
Firth of Forth, and which the reporter, Mr. Joseph Agnew, head 
lighthouse-keeper, desired to have named. One of these was a 
Nightjar, Caprimulgus ewropeus, a species hitherto unknown at 
this station; another was an adult male Redstart, Ruticilla 
phenicura; and the third is the subject of this notice. 
Along with the box of birds Mr. Agnew sent me the third 
fully filled-in schedule which I have received from him for 1881, 
and I cannot pass on here without testifying to the intelligent 
interest and careful attention which is manifested in these 
schedules. At the same time I am glad to testify in like manner 
to the general interest created by the Abstract of our Report on 
