The Annals 



of 



Scottish Natural History 



NO. 78] 1911 [APRIL 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ROCK-BREEDING 

 BIRDS OF THE BUTT OF LEWIS, 1910. 



By ROBERT CLYNE. 



THE sea- board for a couple of miles on the east and west 

 of the extreme Butt is, for the most part, rocky and much 

 indented, but there are small sandy bays on both sides, the 

 resort of shoals of sand-eels and fry, and consequently good 

 feeding ground for birds. The rocks they can hardly be 

 termed cliffs range from 60 to 90 feet in height ; are very 

 much fissured and cleft, with fallen portions overlapping each 

 other. There are also several detached skerries, a few 

 yards from the mainland, which cannot be reached without 

 a boat. There is therefore no lack of convenient corners for 

 the different birds which come to breed. These are Shags, 

 Herring and Lesser Blackbacked Gulls, Kittiwakes, Terns, 

 Black Guillemots, Rock-Pigeons, Grey Crows, Starlings, and 

 Common Sparrows. To these may be added a few pairs of 

 Eiders, Sheldrakes, and Oyster-catchers, which are frequently 

 seen though their nests have not been found ; Ring- Plover, 

 which breed in the vicinity of the rocks, and Shearwaters and 

 Petrels, which are seen every year at breeding time. 



Hundreds of Shags nest in our given area, many in caves 

 out of view of observers. Early in April they were 

 occasionally observed hobbling about in unusual quarters 

 78 B 



