ON THE AVIFAUNA OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES 89 



Harris (i.e. since 1888), but a pair are still frequenting 

 another old eyrie. 1 



" Grouse are scarcer much scarcer for some years. We 

 used to kill from 250 to 350 brace ; these last few years 

 only about 100 brace. Fifteen brace were brought to be 

 put down last year by Colonel Pearcy, the tenant, and none 

 are to be shot in 1901. 



" Snipe as usual, but Woodcock not one for six." They 

 have never recovered from the hard winter of 1894-95. 

 Mallard about the same. Deer are increasing in numbers, 

 but decreasing in weight. 



It now, I think, only remains for me to mention the 

 visits paid to that lone rock in the North Atlantic viz. 

 Rockall. The limited fauna of that outlying isle might almost 

 be considered quite apart from the group of the Outer 

 Hebrides ; but, as Buckley and I did treat of it in our" Fauna 

 of the Outer Hebrides," I may be allowed again to refer to it 

 here. I only do so, however, in so far as seems needful, viz. 

 to refer my readers to the list of twenty species which were 

 observed there by the expedition in the Congested Districts 

 and Fishery Commissioners of Ireland, s.s. Grannaille upon 

 that occasion. 



Shortly, then, the eighteen species observed were as 

 follows : Gannet, Dunlin, Whimbrel, Lesser Tern, Lesser 

 B. B. Gull, Herring Gull, Common Gull, Kittiwake, Great 

 Skua, Pomatorhine Skua, Richardson Skua, Razorbill, 

 Guillemot, Puffin, Fulmar, Great Shearwater, Manx Shear- 

 water, Storm Petrel. 



The irresponsible records of the breeding at Rockall of 

 the Briinnich's Guillemot and of the Little Auk have been 

 banished from the worthier accounts of Rockall, as utterly 

 untenable (see "Annals" for 1892, p. 197). 



So far as our knowledge went of the species at that time, 

 a very full account of the Great Shearwater will be found in 

 the paper referred to. 2 



1 But other accounts rather tend to encourage the hope, if not the belief, that 

 there are some indications of a revival amongst the numbers of this fine species. 



2 Reports, VI. "On the Ornithology of Rockall," by J. A. Harvie-Brown 

 and R. M. Harrington, members of the British Ornithologists' Union, "Trans. 

 Royal Irish Academy," vol. xxxi. Part iii. pp. 66-75, ?ls. ix., x., xi. ; and also of the 

 former history of the Rock, by T. Rupert Jones (loc. at. pp. 89-98). A popular 

 account of the expedition is given by Lloyd Praeger in " The Irish Naturalist." 



