212 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



ON VISITS PAID TO THE ISLAND OF 



N. RONA. 



By HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF BEDFORD. 



DURING the present summer I have on two occasions 

 visited the Island of North Rona, viz. on ipth July and on 

 25th August. As on a previous visit in 1907, I landed 

 without difficulty. 



A cave running almost half-way across the narrow 

 isthmus at the north-west end of the island affords an excellent 

 landing-place on the western side. There is no anchorage 

 on this side for a large vessel, and, as the sailing instructions 

 vaguely inform one that " a low water rock lies two cables off 

 the southern side of the island and others more than half a 

 mile off," North Rona is more interesting to me than my 

 Captain. The yacht therefore has to stand some distance 

 out at sea. 



The author of " The Fauna of the Outer Hebrides," 

 describing his visit to the island in 1887, says: "The sea- 

 pink, which grows in continuous profusion over the whole 

 surface, filled the air with delicious fragrance, faint but 

 sweet." The sea-pink was in bloom at the time of my visit, 

 but by no stretch of the imagination could I have detected 

 its fragrance amidst the all-pervading stench of the nesting- 

 place of hundreds of Fulmars, Great and Lesser Black-backed 

 Gulls and Herring Gulls, and his remark probably bears 

 eloquent testimony to the great increase in these birds since 

 that time, an increase which may possibly be due to the 

 island being now entirely uninhabited. The Fulmars occupy 

 not only the cliffs, but all the old ruins and even the sloping 

 ledges of rock. The low peninsulas both at the south-west and 

 northern ends of the island are thickly covered with the nests 

 of the Lesser Black-backed Gull, and in smaller numbers 

 the Greater Black-backed and Herring Gulls. The cliffs are 

 tenanted by thousands of Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills, 

 Kittiwakes, and Shags. At the extreme south-western end 

 is a large colony of Arctic Terns. Great numbers of Gannets 

 were seen flying round the island, probably members of the 

 colony nesting on Sulisgeir. 



