52 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



of Edinburgh, in which he devotes a chapter to an excursion 

 he made to the Bass Rock and the Isle of May. A visit to 

 these islands, the reader is informed, " is now easily accom- 

 plished, by means of the steam-boats that make an occasional 

 summer trip there, starting in the morning from Trinity 

 Pier, and returning in the evening." Incidentally, it is 

 mentioned that the trip he describes was made on 23rd June, 

 but no year is given, though it may safely, I think, be set 

 down to 1 83 1 or 1832. Regarding the birds seen on the 

 May, this is what he says (p. 64) : 



" The larus rissa was seen crowding the crevices of the high 

 cliffs to the west, with nests of eggs and young ones. The sea 

 swallow (sterna hirundo), and the guillemot or marrot, were also 

 in considerable numbers. The sparrow, a guest wherever a cottage 

 eave or a field of grain is to be found, was also here a denizen; 

 and with a few young stone-chats, formed the whole land birds 

 visible." 



Larus rissa is, of course, the Kittiwake {Rissa tridactyld) ; 

 and the sea swallow one of the Terns ; l while the " stone-chats " 

 were no doubt Wheatears, which I have myself found breed- 

 ing on the island, but not in recent years. The only species 

 of sparrow that frequents the island at the present day is the 

 Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus). 



In 1833 also, we find Selby, in his British Ornithology 

 (vol. ii., p. 468), referring to the Common Tern nesting on 

 the Isle of May ; but he does not state the source of his 

 information. " Upon the Fern Islands," he writes, " I have 

 never seen more than two or three pairs in a season ; and at 

 the Isle of May in the Frith of Forth, ... its numbers are 

 equally restricted." In the same volume, p. 427, Selby makes 

 this statement regarding the Black Guillemot (Uria grylle) : 

 " It certainly breeds, though in a very small proportion, upon 

 the Isle of May, at the mouth of the Frith of Forth." 



In connection with the latter quotation from Selby, it is 

 of interest to note that at a meeting of the Berwickshire 

 Naturalists' Club, held at Coldingham on 19th June 1839, 



1 It would be unsafe to conclude that, because the scientific name 

 Sterna hirundo was used by Rhind, the species was therefore the 

 Common Tern. 



