50 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



regard the bulk of the actual occurrences as representing those 

 of mere autumn, immature, inexperienced, straggling birds, 

 carried westward by adverse weather, because this species has 

 occurred many times both on its vernal and autumnal migrations, 

 and in vigorous condition. 



Mr. Eagle Clarke's discovery of the Icterine Warbler on Fair 

 Isle is highly interesting, not only because he shows us that the 

 bird " has occurred annually on the island during recent years in 

 spring or autumn or both," * thereby making its periodic status 

 in all likelihood that of an annual visitor on passage in spring 

 and autumn, but also because he shows us that the bird, when 

 affecting migration-phases lasting several almost consecutive 

 days, made its appearance on some of these days in the plural 

 number, proving conclusively that it cannot be a mere accidental 

 wanderer. And the appearance of two Icterine Warblers, a male 

 and a female, almost synchronously at Orkney, fortifies this last 

 argument. The complete status of the bird, therefore — periodic 

 and numeric — as far as Fair Isle is concerned, might read 

 somewhat thus : An annual visitor on passage in spring and 

 autumn in small numbers ; but at the same time I wish to point 

 out that I have founded this status for the Icterine Warbler at 

 Fair Isle with all due deference to Mr. Eagle Clarke's opinion, 

 for it is he who has furnished us first-hand with the interesting 

 data, having conducted his investigations personally. I desire 

 merely to generalise as the result of a very keen interest taken 

 in this point. I am fully in accord with Mr. Eagle Clarke's 

 remarks, that the " species largely escapes notice as a bird of 

 passage along the British shores." t 



The extreme paucity of records of the bird's occurrence in 

 Ireland — only two in all— as compared with those not only of 

 England but also of Scotland, is somewhat puzzling. Un- 

 doubtedly the disproportion is, to a large extent, to be explained 

 by the fact that workers in the field of Irish ornithology have, 

 all along the line, been lamentably few. As seen, the records 

 extend over very long intervals of time ; albeit from this fact 

 alone, one must not, as before stated, hastily conclude that 



* " Notes on the Migratory Birds observed at Fair Isle in 1914 " 

 (' Scottish Naturalist,' May, 1915, p. 104). 

 t Ibid, 



