20 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



areas of our seas, but the locality or localities of its breeding haunts 

 remain as great a mystery as heretofore. I scarcely think it neces- 

 sary to epitomise the later items of information, as the details are 

 so recent in the memory of ornithologists. 



Since the " Fauna of the Outer Hebrides " was issued, in which 

 at most half a dozen instances and some doubtful were given, 

 little more was known of interest till June 1890. And this was 

 the case, although Mr. Henry Evans had had almost annual oppor- 

 tunities to have met with and recognised them in the many cruises 

 he had in his yacht among the islands. In 1894, however, many 

 were seen, first off the Butt of Lewis. On this occasion all were in 

 pairs. Prof. Newton and Mr. Henry Evans witnessed the facts. 

 " Some thirty or forty pairs " was the estimate of the numbers seen. 

 These observations continued until the ship approached North Rona, 

 "after which we saw no more of them," says Prof. Newton ("Annals 

 Scot. Nat. Hist." 1900, p. 143), i.e. to the northward or anywhere 

 else during that trip. But, as will be seen, Mr. Hugh Popham saw 

 more farther to the northward that same year. Again, in June 1895, 

 Prof. Newton met with many Great Shearwaters between Barra Head 

 and St. Kilda. Again they were in pairs, and behaved "exactly as 

 they did on the former occasion." At the same time the men of 

 St. Kilda were not at all familiar with the bird, although some of 

 them knew it as a rare visitor previous to this season or those 

 seasons of 1894-95 ; but succeeded in obtaining several specimens 

 for Mr. Evans in 1897. When in Mr. Evans' yacht again in July, 

 off Lewis and North Rona, and that on the anniversary of the day 

 when so many were seen there in 1894, "not a Great Shearwater 

 showed itself." 



1 now refer to a visit paid in 1896 to that extraordinary rock 

 out in the Atlantic, viz. Rockall, which was visited by the expedition 

 supported by the Royal Irish Academy, and of which a full account 

 will be found in the Transactions of that Society (vol. xxxi. part iii. 

 pp. 66-78, and plates ix. x. and xi.). In the Ornithological Report 

 a very full account of this singular bird is given, bringing up to the 

 date a fair amount of our knowledge regarding its distribution in the 

 North Atlantic. On that occasion Great Shearwaters were found in 

 great numbers, and in large flocks all around and about the Rock on 

 both occasions on which it was visited in June 1896. 



A Great Shearwater was found dead on the west shore of Eoli- 

 gary, Barra, in July 1899, and it is preserved in Mr. MacGillivray's 

 collection. He had never seen one there before. 



BLACK GUILLEMOT (Uria grylle\ p. 164. For an account of 

 an individual of this species in breeding plumage in winter in 

 Barra, see "Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist," 1893, p. 118. The question 

 is not yet settled, I think, about the old birds retaining the summer 

 plumage all winter, and only the young birds being grey in their 



