78 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



BAR-TAILED GODWIT (Limosa lapponica}. On 24th August 1887 T 

 shot one, a single bird. 8th June 1892, I found a Godwit, in 

 full breeding plumage, frequenting the margin of one of our 

 small lochs. I saw him for a week or ten days, and then he 

 disappeared. I heard he had been shot by one of the islanders. 



WHIMBREL (Numenius phceopus}. A common bird here during the 

 month of August : I have seen as many as thirty or forty together. 

 In a flock of Whimbrels, Curlews are often seen, but much in 

 the minority, as the latter is by no means common here till after 

 the Whimbrel leaves, which it does early in September. 



CURLEW (Numenius arquata). Pretty common in late autumn and 

 winter. During winter most of the Curlews on the island 

 appear to keep in one flock, their favourite resting-place a 

 point of rock on the north shore running out for some dis- 

 tance into the sea, called the Green Skerry. They sometimes 

 number a hundred or more, and are very wary and difficult to 

 approach. 



ARCTIC TERN (Sterna macrurd). A common breeding species last 

 year scattered in small groups or single pairs in different parts 

 of the island, whereas formerly, I am given to understand, they 

 nested almost entirely in one colony : in a large grass field at 

 the south-west of the island. This past season they nested 

 largely in corn-fields, perhaps owing to the late season and the 

 corn being backward in growth. 



COMMON TERN (Sterna fluviatilus}. Scarce, compared with the 

 Arctic Tern, but still certainly identified. Nesting sometimes 

 singly, and in other instances with the above-named bird. In 

 very few cases did I find more than two eggs in the nests of 

 either species. 



BLACK-HEADED GULL (Larus ridibundus\h. very large colony 

 occupy the reeds in the centre of the Mill Loch. I believe this 

 colony to be much smaller than it was some years ago, owing 

 to the manner in which the nests are systematically robbed by 

 the boys. The late Dr. Traill did all in his power to protect 

 the birds during the breeding season, but the present proprietor, 

 Mr. John Traill, having been so much abroad, the boys have 

 had it all their own way. 



HERRING GULL (Larus argentatus).- The commonest of the Larinae 

 during winter here ; the Common Gull (Larus canus) being 

 noticed in much smaller numbers 



LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL (Larus fitscus). By no means com- 

 monly seen at any time. During July 1892 a flock of some 

 sixty or seventy remained about Ancum Loch for two or three 

 weeks. These were chiefly old birds, but few in the first year's 

 plumage being seen among them. 



