i8 AXXALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Mr. Mackenzie writes me, with regard to the number of eggs 

 taken : " It is difficult to arrive at anything like an exact figure. I am 

 the very last person to whom the natives would give the information, 

 as they are aware of my strong objections to their touching the eggs 

 of any of the birds that do not form an article of food. There are 

 fourteen men on the island, and I think a fair average per man 

 would be one dozen each." 



Mr. C. V. A. Peel appears to have the impression that Fork- 

 tailed Petrels breed somewhere among the islands of the southern 

 group of the Outer Hebrides, but I have never been able to 

 establish the fact. Mr. Peel's notes may have been from his own 

 observation, or what appears probable, quoting old records, since 

 found inaccurate (see "Fauna of Outer Hebrides," p. 154). 



I have not been able to ascertain either that the Outer Hebrides 

 participate to any appreciable extent in the " storm-driven rushes," 

 so to speak, of this bird, which occurred from Tiree and Skye 

 eastward in the end of September 1891, as recorded by Mr. Evans 

 ("Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist." 1891, pp. 74-75). Indeed, I have very 

 few instances to give of occurrences at all anywhere in the Outer 

 Hebrides, except on the few places known to provide them with 

 breeding haunts. 



One, however, is recorded from Barra, which was found dead on 

 September 28, 1897 ("Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist." 1897, p. 151), and 

 Mr. Peel speaks of " seeing them often flying between Barra and an 

 island just to the north of it." On the other hand, Mr. W. 

 MacGillivray writes me that he has only seen the one above stated 

 in the flesh, " and it was found dead by our cattle-herd, quite fresh, 

 but without its head, and as if killed by a hawk " ; and he adds : " I 

 have never known them to breed in the southern isles of Barra." 



FULMAR PETREL (Fulmants glacialis). I do not know upon 

 whose authority Gray speaks of the Fulmar as having once bred 

 upon any of the South Isles of Barra, and that previous to 1844, 

 and I observe that we took no note of the remark in the " Fauna 

 of the Outer Hebrides." This was not a lapsus on our part, but simply, 

 I think, at that time we could not find a scrap of confirmation. 

 What we should have done was to have quoted Gray's statement, 

 and placed it in square brackets a system we have always 

 advocated in order to save later compilers useless trouble. But this 

 question is again taken up, and Gray is again quoted by Dr. M'Rury 

 ("Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist." 1898, p. 77). Therefore we must now 

 notice it. 



We know nothing more about it now than we did then, and 

 cannot allow it to stand without more perfect statistics than perhaps 

 can now be obtained. I shall be very glad, however, if any one 

 having access to the correspondence and literary remains of the late 

 Mr. R. Gray can throw any light upon the statement. In all the 



