54 The Scottish Naturalist. 



places, it is stated to be not uncommon about Hudson's Bay 

 and Labrador. According to Mr. Reeks, § it is tolerably 

 common in Newfoundland during its migtations, and has been* 

 frequently shot in company with the Eider. 



After this brief sketch of the geographical distribution of the 

 King Duck, other questions of some interest are apt to suggest 

 themselves, in connection with the irregular migrations of these, 

 as well as of other birds, fishes, &c, hundreds of miles away from 

 their recognised head-quarters, to places where some of them 

 are not known to have occurred before, whilst others have only 

 been observed occasionally at lbng intervals. Although these 

 wanderings are performed by different classes of animals, it 

 would appear to be mainly those who inhabit the same regions, 

 who take to moving off at or about the same time. Do 

 these migrations take place in obedience to an unknown 

 — or in its operations, unrecognized — force- or law acting on 

 the animals themselves ? If so, is it dynamical, mechanical, 

 psychical in its nature, or what ? And if related to one or 

 either, does it act at regular or irregular periods ? Observations 

 from different parts of the world may by and bye — after we have 

 got over the " straggler " theory — throw considerable light on 

 the latter question. The former, however, may long remain 

 somewhat inscrutable. 



St. Andrews, February, 1873. 



NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF THE BASS ROCK. 



By JAMES LUMSDEN, Jr. 



A VISIT to the Bass Rock, at any season, well repays the 

 **■*■ the tourist. Its many associations give it a varied in- 

 terest. There the antiquary, as well as the student of geology 

 and ornithology, may find abundance to speculate on and in- 

 terest them. But, however much the antiquary may be charmed 

 with the remains of bye-gone days, or the geologist find subject 

 for speculation in the formation of the rock, to the ornithologist 

 it is of the greatest interest, as one of the chief breeding stations 

 of the sea birds of our coast. 



§ Zoologist, 1869. 



