58 
LAN I AD /E. 
the one-spotted and two-spotted individuals as of different 
species, took no little pains to point out the supposed mistake 
of other authors who made no such distinction. 
THE EED-BACKED SHEIKE. 
Lanins collurio. 
Earely indeed though a fact relating to the ornithology of 
his own country escaped the unwearied vigilance of Mac- 
gillivray, it has recently been shown that the Eed-backed 
Shrike had already been captured north of the Border prior to 
1840, when in the third volume of the “ British Birds,” p. 507, 
he mentioned it as unknown in Scotland. Four such examples 
are recorded in Mr Gray’s ‘‘Birds of the West of Scotland,’’ 
p. 67, and on perusing that author’s account still further, one 
cannot but entertain a hope that, like the missel thrush, once 
so exceedingly scarce, this handsome species is gradually in- 
creasing in numbers, and will soon be well known throughout 
Scotland. To the above-named account I may add that in May 
1870 I saw a male in the long hawthorn lane at Blair Drum- 
mond, in Perthshire, and in a local collection another specimen, 
also a male, which was shot near the same place many years 
previously. As regards its occurrence in Shetland, I shot a 
young male of this species at Halligarth on the 5th of October 
1866, up to which time the Eed-backed Shrike had not been 
included in any catalogue of Shetland birds, and, on the 
strength of Mr Macgillivray’s statement, I assumed erroneously 
that this was the first recorded instance of its being seen north 
of the Tweed. Again, on the 9th of June 1870, while walking 
along the low cliffs above the sands at Burrafirth, I caught a 
glimpse of a bird flying up the grassy slope, uttering a short 
chirping noise, and carrying something in its biU. It dis- 
appeared behind a ruined wall, and immediately returning 
picked up some article of food near the edge of the cliff, and 
again flew back to the old wall. I then recognised the bird as 
