G4 
MEKULID/E. 
it lias ever nested there, the reports of it having done so in 
Bressay and in the neighbourhood of Lerwick being utterly 
groundless. Captain Feilden, however, informs us* that it 
breeds in Faroe, 
[I shall, perhaps, be exercising a wise discretion in here 
departing for once from the strictness with which these 
pages are confined to observations made in Shetland, and 
venturing a remark on the assertion in the new edition of 
Yarrell’s “ British Birds,” that the recorded cases of the Eed- 
wing’s breeding in Great Britain are to be regarded with doubt. 
There cannot be the shadow of a question as to the absolute 
soundness of the case there merely alluded to as perhaps the 
best authenticated, namely, the detection of the nest by Dr 
Saxby in May 1855, in North Wales. It was under his daily 
observation from May 12th to June 5th, when at last it was 
cut out of the bay-tree in which it was built, the birds having 
forsaken it, all his vigilance in the hope of seeing young Eed- 
wings British born being frustrated. One of the eggs then 
taken is on the table as I write, together with the minutely 
detailed record in the pages of my brother’s note-book for the 
year alluded to. I well remember the anxious care taken to 
guard the birds from intrusion, and the deep interest felt in 
the unprecedented occurrence by the old shepherd and the 
few others who were in the secret, — Ed.] 
THE BLACKBIED. 
Turdus merula. 
Like the two preceding species, the Blackbird is now 
common in spring and autumn, and probably from the same 
cause. There is little doubt that it has bred in the southern 
districts, and that it would breed regularly in Unst, at Halli- 
garth, had it a fair chance. I have known pairs remain in 
spring, and have even found the remains of the nests; but in a 
* Zool., 1872, p. 3215. 
