BIRDS. 
121 
Sheriff Mackenzie. In 1878 we met with it for the first 
time at Tnchnadamph, where a pair took up their quarters. 
We, also in the same year, saw one bird on the Loch Tnver 
road, near Assynt shooting-lodge. It does not seem to 
j3rogress where birch only grows, at least such has been our 
experience hitherto. 
Mr. Osborne considered this one of the rarest of Caithness 
visitants up to 1867. A few years before this, however, 
considerable numbers appeared one autumn near his house, 
and this seems to have been the first time they were noted 
as occurring in the county. The season following an equal 
number arrived about the same time. A pair, male and 
female, were shot at Harrow Park in May 1867 (0. MSS., 
1868). It is however previously noted by S. and 0., 1862 
and 1861, as seen about the end of May, and birds of the 
year frequently seen in a garden in Wick. 
In 1885 we observed it commonly at Hempriggs House, 
and also around Dunbeath, and southward in suitable 
• localities. 
77. Muscicapa atricapilla, L. Pied Flycatcher. 
An irregular spring visitant. The first known to have occurred 
in the county was obtained by ourselves in a very wild 
burn, some eight or nine miles from Brora, on the 27th of 
May 1872. After that none were observed again until the 
year 1881, when a pair came into Mr. Houston's back 
garden at Kintradwell, and took up their qviarters there for 
some days, feeding about the window that looks into the 
garden; they eventually disappeared, though never disturbed, 
and Mr. Houston had good hopes of their breeding there. 
About the same time — May 2 — two of these birds were 
picked up dead at the Meikle Ferry near Tain in Eoss- 
shire, and on the 4th another was found dead, and brought 
^ The Meikle Ferry is on the high-road between Inverness and Caithness, 
and connects Sutherland and Ross-shire. 
