282 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



examination into their habits and economy, by one who is not only 

 a good cragsman, but is also a good observer. Mr. George 

 Maclachlan spent over four years as lighthouse-keeper on Barra 

 Head. He left it in 1870, owing to bad health, and Captain H. W. 

 Feilden and myself met him on board the s.s. " Dun vegan Castle," 

 on his way to consult Dr. Sir Robert Christison, in Edinburgh. 

 This was on the 25th May, 1870, when we were on our way to 

 Barra Head. I am glad to say that Mr. Maclachlan's health is 

 now quite restored, and he is lighthouse-keeper at another of the 

 Scottish stations. I am indebted to him for a careful return from 

 one of the north coast lighthouses in connection with the 

 Migration of Birds in 1879.* 



Such notes as Mr. Maclachlan's are particularly valuable, being 

 the result of observations made at the same locality in four con- 

 secutive breeding seasons by one well able to observe correctly, 

 and few of our naturalists have had as good opportunities of 

 becoming intimately acquainted with any single rock-bird station, 

 or have spent so much time, day after day, all through four seasons, 

 in watching the habits of the residents. Mr. Maclachlan's notes 

 cannot be looked upon as written for writing's sake, but as the 

 real outcome of patient and correct observation, in the field, and 

 in one of nature's grandest observatories. 



I have supplemented them under the several species spoken 

 of by a few additional observations made by Capt. H. W. Feilden 

 and myself during our visit to Barra Head, of two nights and a 

 day, in Lne end of May, 1870; and I have also alluded to the 

 remarks of other observers on the rock-birds of this nursery. 



Scattered notices of Barra Head occur in the works of our 

 earlier authors. Martin only shortly refers to it; Macgillivray 

 gives a good description of it in his "British Birds" [vol. v., p. 

 351] ;t Captain Elwes describes it faithfully [Ibis, 1869]; and Mr. 

 Theo. Walker goes somewhat minutely into a description of it 

 ["Zoologist." May 1870, p. 2117]. Incidental accounts occur 

 throughout the literature connected with the Hebrides and 

 Highlands and Islands of Scotland, but a list of these would 

 occupy too much space. Muir's " Barra Head," however, may be 

 instanced as one giving illustrations of the scenery. 



* V. "Zoologist," May, 1880. 



t This is evidently rewritten and somewhat compressed from his earlier 

 "Account," in 1830 [Edin, Journ. of Nat. and Geog. Science, vol. ii., p. 331]. 



