134 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



and the persecution to which they are subjected on these islands, 

 is doubtless the cause, both of their numbers diminishini,' and of 

 their so frequently shifting their place of abode. 



We have not unfrequently found four eggs in a nest, and on 

 one occasion five were found, though Mr Shearer, with all the 

 long experience he has had in the east of Caithness, nevertheless 

 states that "it never lays more than three" ("Field," 29th Nov., 

 1862). This only proves, to my mind, how greatly circumstances 

 and locality influence birds in the number of eggs laid. Whether 

 this is owing to comparative plenty or comparative scarcity of 

 food in general, or of their favourite food in particular, or to some 

 other cause not yet accurately determined by naturalists, I cannot 

 take it upon me to say; but the fact stands, I believe, beyond 

 disproof, not only as regards Cormorants, but as regards number- 

 less other species, as, for instance, the Merlin, Buzzard, etc. 



GREEN CORMORANT. 



PHALACROCORAX CRIST ATUS (Faber). 



More plentiful on Handa than the Cormorant, breeding as 

 usual low down on the rocks, and, when possible, choosing such 

 ledges as are found to hang immediately over the water. On 

 the Badcall islands they are comparatively scarce, though the 

 caves there seem to be fully as well adapted to their habits as 

 those of Handa are. 



The Librarian announced the following donations to the 

 Library : — Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society 

 of Edinburgh, Vol. x.. Part ii., 1870; from the Society. Kennedy's 

 Clydesdale Flora, 1865, and Salisbury's Botanist's Companion, 1816; 

 from Mr Walter Gait. Skandinavisk Herpetologi, af S. Nilsson, 

 Lund., 1842; from Mr Thomas Chapman. Jahresbericht der 

 Gesellschaft fiir Natur und Heilkunde in Dresden, 1870; from the 

 Society. Stainton's Natural History of the Tineina, Vol. xii., 

 London, 1870; from Dr Hugh Colquhoun. 



January 31st, 1871. 



Professor John Young, M.D., F.G.S., President, in the chair. 

 Messrs George Martin, Jun., and James M'Kerrow, were 

 elected resident members. 



