342 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



been done either in the way of discovering or discrimi- 

 nating new species. Of the three last added, the chiff- 

 chaff (Sylvia hippolais) was shot at ITlbster, in July, 

 by Mr K. I. Shearer, who subsequently procured another 

 specimen. A fine male blackcap warbler (Curruca atri- 

 capilla) was shot by myself on the 16th October, and a 

 female of the same species on the 28th (the birds were ex- 

 hibited). Besides the fact of these birds being new to the 

 Far North, the dates are so late that it has been matter of 

 surprise to all who have heard of the circumstance, and 

 know something of the economy of the bird, how such a 

 delicate member of the family of Sylviadce could possibly 

 subsist at such a season in this climate. With the excep- 

 tion, however, that the male was not in song, both birds 

 were as active and lively as they are described to be in mid- 

 summer, and both, too, were in perfect plumage. I have 

 observed, in cases where the swallow has prolonged its stay 

 with us until far on in the season, that there was an evident 

 lack of that liveliness, vigour, and power of flight, displayed, 

 for instance, in the month of June ; but no such peculiarity 

 was observable in the blackcaps. This, for the most part, 

 perhaps, may be owing to the fact that the blackcap, when 

 insect food is scarce, can subsist on the smaller fruits, while 

 the swallow is wholly insectivorous. While under my own 

 observation, the blackcaps fed principally on the berries of 

 the mountain-ash. The Naturalist-Editor of "The Field" 

 newspaper, in commenting upon the occurrence of the 

 blackcap in Caithness, truly remarks : — " In the statement 

 that the blackcap eats rowans, in Caithness, in the middle of 

 October, we have therefore three novel facts in natural 

 history, instead of one." The third and last addition was the 

 cole tit (Parus ater), shot in a narrow belt of plantation 

 about a mile from AYick. Mr Sandison, who shot this 

 specimen, also procured another, some days after, from the 

 country. This beautiful bird, although common in most 

 Scottish counties, has not hitherto been recorded as occurring 

 in Caithness. In addition to these, a crossbill, which some 

 authorities have pronounced to be Loxia pityopsittacus (the 

 bird was exhibited) was found dead in the neighbourhood of 



