(Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 





The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 74.] 1918 [February. 



NOTES ON SOME OF THE BIRDS OF BUTE, 

 INCLUDING RECORDS OF THEIR PASSAGE 

 TO THE MAINLAND. 



By the Rev. J. M. M'WlLLlAM, C.F. 



In these notes I have brought together a few jottings from 

 my diary recording observations on Bute birds. Force of 

 circumstance, which may entail prolonged absence from the 

 island, suggests the desirability of making public a few 

 records of birds not common in Bute, and a series of 

 observations on the more interesting habits of some of our 

 island birds. These notes were made during an unbroken 

 period of a year and a half (from December 191 5 to May 

 1917). 



Passage of Birds from Bute to the Mainland. 

 During the eighteen months which I spent on Bute, I tried 

 to find out to what extent the narrow seas round the island 

 constitute a barrier for birds. I was surprised to find how 

 seldom land-birds could be discovered in the act of crossing. 

 On one occasion I saw a Rock-pipit leave Bute for the 

 mainland, but though I lived on the sea-front it was only on 

 the rarest occasions that I was able to note the arrival or 

 departure of strictly land-birds. Of course the arrival and 



74 D 



