REFERENCES TO BIRD-LIFE OF THE ISLE OF MAY 51 



gulls which haunt the rocks on the west side still at roost in the 

 face of the precipices : when disturbed, they appeared quite innumer- 

 able, and made a most querulous noise. Dunter-geese, or eider 

 ducks, breed on the east or low side in considerable numbers." 



So far as I can discover, the next naturalist to visit the 

 island was the well-known ornithologist, Sir Wm. Jardine, 

 who, as I shall presently show, was there in July 1825 and 

 in 1829, though he does not appear to have published any 

 of his observations till 1843. 1 Meantime a few records at the 

 hands of other writers made their appearance. 



Thus, in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol. 

 vi., 1829, edited by Prof. Jameson, there is a paragraph 

 (pp. 189-90) headed "Sea Birds, etc., of the Isle of May," 

 from which the following all that relates to birds is 

 taken : 



"Mr Pithie, the intelligent light-keeper of the Isle of May, in a 

 note to his Return to the Engineer for the Northern Light-houses 

 for October 1828, mentions, that 'all the sea-birds have now (October 

 20) left the island, except the scarts (cormorants, Phalacrocorax 

 Caroo), which come in numbers to winter there. They roost on 

 the shelves on the west side, and also on the outer rocks of the 

 North Ness. Early in the spring, they all take their departure, 

 except a few which remain over the summer, and hatch in the cover 

 on the west side of the island.' " 



Harvie-Brown 2 erroneously in my opinion accepted 

 this as evidence that the Cormorant then nested on the 

 May. The names within brackets, "cormorants, Phalacro- 

 corax Carbo" were, we may be sure, inserted by the editor, 

 and are no proof that by scarts the writer of the note meant 

 cormorants as distinguished from shags. Both are "scarts," 

 and it was no doubt in that broad sense that the light- 

 keeper used the term. Doubtless, then as now, both 

 species wintered on the island, but only shags remained to 

 breed. 



Early in 1833 William Rhind first issued his Excursions 

 illustrative oj the Geology and Natural History oj the Environs 



1 See, however, Postscript on p. 58. 



2 "The Isle of May : Its Faunal Position and Bird Life," Proc. Roy. 

 Phys. Soc. Edin., ix., 1887, p. 325. 



