THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 
f)9 
a female Eed-backed Shrike, and, following her uj), beheld to 
iny astonishment three young birds, tolerably strong upon the 
wing, yet clamouring loudly for food. The whole family was 
very shy, and it was only w^hen I crouched behind a distant 
rock that the feeding process was resumed. I am quite at a 
loss to account satisfactorily for the presence of young birds in 
such a place. For some weeks previously there had not been 
an hour’s rough weather, so they could not have been driven 
over ; and it is almost impossible that they could have crossed 
the sea voluntarily, the Shetlands lying a hundred miles at 
least from the nearest land. There was nothing in the shape 
of a bush in the neighbourhood, and I can only imagine that, 
if the brood w’-as really hatched there, the nest must have been 
placed among the long heather which fringes the low rugged 
cliffs. About a month afterwards, observing some dead bees 
fastened among the twigs of a willow hedge at Halligarth, I 
watched the spot, and soon discovered a young Shrike, in all 
probability one of the Burrafirth three, but the others I never 
saw again. It remained about the garden for nearly three 
weeks, and then disappeared during the night. 
II. MU8CICAPIBM. 
SPOTTED FLYCATCHEE. 
Muscicajpa (jrisola. 
The well-known habits of the Spotted Flycatcher, attaching 
itself as it does exclusively to wooded and well-cultivated dis- 
tricts, would scarcely warrant a search for it so far removed 
from both as are the Shetland Islands ; yet it does occur, 
though very seldom. Thomas Edmondston considered it not 
common,”* and Messrs Baikie and Heddle record but one 
individual as having occurred in Orkney. I have met with it 
but twice in Shetland — once in June, 1859, and again early in 
* Zool., 1844, p. 460. 
