448 MR. .1. II. GURNEY, JUN., ON THE ISLES OF SCILLY. 
Reed Warblers alluded to therein (Bidwell, Trans. Norfolk and 
Norwich Nat. Soc. vol. iv. p. 204) were seen hy a former keeper, 
David Smith. Mr. Jenkinson states that the former frequented 
a reed-hed below the Abbey road for about a fortnight, at the end 
of September, 1883. Smith, I was told, had a very good know- 
ledge of birds, but, as it was not obtained, its identity can 
hardly be considered as proved. 
Mr. Dorrien Smith has begun a collection of Scillonian Birds to 
which, since Mr. Bidwell’s visit, has been added White’s Thrush, 
[Tardus varius, Pall), shot by his butler, Mr. G. Britton, on 
December 2nd, 1886. This is the eighteenth British specimen. It 
frequented the Abbey garden for three weeks ; November is there- 
fore the month which should be accredited with it, and not December. 
Ten of the eighteen British specimens have been killed in January, 
and of two the date is not known. There is an undoubted 
tendency among birds of the eastern Palsearctic regions, when 
they do come here, to visit us about mid-winter. Its general 
haunt was, Mr. Britton informed us, the Long walk, among the 
Dracmnas, — just the place which this ground-feeding Thrush 
would choose ; in fact, from their habits in this respect, they have 
been more than once mistaken for Woodcocks. 
The latest published List of the Birds of the Scillies is that by 
the Rev. R. W. J. Smart, contained in the Transactions of the 
Penzance Natural History Society for 1885 — 86 ; in which, besides 
his own observations, are incorporated those of Mr. A. Pechell, 
INlessrs. J. H. and F. Jenkinson, and Mr. F. R. Rodd. It is not 
a lengthy article, and, did space allow, I should like to have made 
some remarks upon it, but fear, lest my pen should occupy more 
than its share of our Transactions. The Rufous and Great Reed 
Warbler are not included, and only two occurrences of the Grey- 
headed Wagtail, of which we saw a fine male, are given. It is 
doubtful if the Chough has ever been seen, and no Jay has ever 
visited Scilly, which is odd, as they are such well-known North 
Sea migrants, and occasionally occur on the island of Heligoland 
in great numbers.* 
Strange to say, none of the old writers on the Scilly Islands, 
from Botoner (1478) to Borlase (1758 — 59), have anything to say 
about the Manx Shearwater [Pafjimis angloram, Tern.), and it is 
* I saw a plumassier’s shop there full of Jays’ wings. 
