{Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 



The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 75.] 1918 [March. 



EARLY REFERENCES TO THE BIRD-LIFE 

 OF THE ISLE OF MAY. 



By William Evans, F.R.S.E., M.B.O.U. 



PRIOR to the institution, in 1879, of the Bird-migration 

 Inquiry, in which observations at lighthouses have played 

 so prominent a part, records relating to the bird-life of the 

 Isle of May could almost be counted on one's fingers. So few, 

 indeed, are they in comparison with those of the succeeding 

 period, and so scattered that their very existence has been 

 practically lost sight of. The interest, however, they possess 

 for all who are not indifferent to the claims of early records, 

 certainly entitles them to a better fate. This is the thought 

 which has prompted me to search out these old records and 

 reproduce them in the Scottish Naturalist. Should any of 

 my readers be able to cite others, a note regarding them 

 would be welcomed. 



The earliest reference that I have seen to the Isle of 

 May as a haunt of sea-birds is in the accounts of the king's 

 treasurer in the reign of James IV., where, under the date 

 1508, June 30th, there occurs this " Item"; "to ane row bote 

 that hed the king about the Isle of Maij to schut at fowlis 

 with the culveryn. xvid." 1 



1 From Stuart's Records of the Priory of the Isle of May, 1868, 

 p. Ixxix. 



75 g 



