NOTES ON THE MICRO-FAUNA OF AILSA CRAIG. FIRTH OF CLYDE. 153 



Notes on the Micro-fauna of Ailsa Craig*, Firth of Clyde. 



By Thomas Scott, F.L.S., Corresponding Member. 



[Read 30th November, 1897.] 



There was published in 1895, bv the Rev. Robert Lawson, of 

 Maybole, a new and enlarged edition of a rather interesting 

 brochure on the History and Natural History of Ailsa Craig. 

 This " lonely isle of the sea '' is fully described by Mr. Lawson, 

 and as the description is written in a plain and easy style, and 

 illustrated by a series of fairly accurate and characteristic wood- 

 cuts, the wayfarer who happens to be stranded on the Craig, and 

 who has a copy of this little book as companion and guide, will 

 have his visit made both interesting and instructive. In that 

 portion of the little work which deals with the natural history 

 of Ailsa Craig, Mr. Lawson gives an account of its avi-fauna, and 

 there is also an extensive list of plants, including both phseno- 

 gams and cryptogams, that were collected on the island by the 

 late Professor Balfour and a party of students in 1845 ; but there 

 is very little information about any of the other natural history 

 groups. Reference is made to the occurrence of the Slow-worm 

 and a few other organisms, but that is all. It may be that the 

 apparent barrenness of the rock has stood in the way of a very 

 minute examination being made of it, or perhaps the interest 

 in its bird-life may have usually monopolised the time of visitors 

 with a taste for natural history pursuits ; but, whatever be the 

 reason, little appears to have been done in the investigation 

 of its invertebrates. Like the Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth, 

 Ailsa Craig is, no doubt, pre-eminently the home of the sea birds, 

 and trulv, if durins: the breedinoj season one takes a cruise round 

 the island, and views the great multitude of birds, watches their 

 ceaseless activity, and listens to the strange sounds produced by 

 the blending of their varied and incessant cries, the whole forms 

 a combination indescribable, and as each moment brings into view 



some new and interesting scene, words fail to describe one's 



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