90 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



I have recently received a most interesting and full 

 account of matters connected with the south-western portions 

 of the Lews from Mrs. Platt, whose husband has been the 

 long-time tenant of the deer-forest of the " Park of Lewis." 

 I am glad to say this sets at rest certain anxiety about some, 

 at least, of our rarer species. 



I am indebted also to Mr. A. M. Chance of Birmingham 

 for a list of the birds seen in the island of Benbecula, during 

 a short visit paid by him to that island of the group in June 

 1896 ; and perhaps an interesting point is that he does not 

 mention having met with the Common Tern (Sterna fluviatilis), 

 while assuring me that he looked carefully for it. 



I have also received a most excellent running commentary 

 upon our volume from Mr. Andrew M'Elfrish, Sheriff-Clerk of 

 Lochmaddy, whose fifteen years' experiences of the islands, 

 and his keen interest in all things relating to birds and sport, 

 leave very little information ungleaned during these years, 

 as regards the birds which come under the sportsman's notice. 

 He has most ungrudgingly placed all these notes at my dis- 

 posal for the purposes of this compilation. 



In the November number of "The Zoologist" (1901) 

 is a short and rather inaccurate notice of the Shiant Isles, 

 apparently written from memory. 



Mr. C. V. A. Peel, who has spent several years as a 

 sportsman in Lewis, North Uist, Benbecula, and Barra, and 

 who informs me that he has an account of his experiences in 

 the press, which will shortly be published, has most kindly 

 sent me a very interesting chronological sequence of his bird- 

 notes. His own full account will be included in his book, 

 which may probably see the light before this account of mine 

 does. 1 



When our readers consider this appendix and compare it 

 with the " Fauna of the Outer Hebrides," I think it is very 

 likely that some may believe that much must have been 

 missed by us before, when so many species have been added 

 to the list since ; but it will be allowed, I think, that most of 

 these species are such as could only be added by a resident 

 on the islands all the year round, or by the records of our 

 reporters at the lighthouses, and by those sportsmen who 



1 Since issued, December 1901. 



