REFERENCES TO BIRD-LIFE OF THE ISLE OF MAY 57 



which show that he visited the island more than once ; he 

 gives no dates, however : 



Peregrine Falcon. " I have repeatedly seen the birds flying 

 above the gloomy caves on the south side of the island." 



Rock Pipit. "On the islands in the firth, the May, the Bass 

 Rock, Craig Leith, and Fidra, they are particularly plentiful." 



Blackbird. "On the Bass Rock and the Isle of May several 

 have come under my notice. To the May, I believe, the birds are 

 only occasional visitors." 



Purple Sandpiper. 'Mentions seeing this species " on both the 

 Bass and the Isle of May." 



Black Guillemot. "At the May there is, so far as I have been 

 able to ascertain, good evidence that some years back a few pair 

 frequented certain portions of the island and regularly reared their 

 young." 



Roseate Tern. "The Isle of May, off the northern shores of 

 the Firth of Forth, is enumerated among the breeding-haunts of 

 the Roseate Tern ; in this case I am inclined to believe some error 

 has arisen, having frequently visited the spot without observing the 

 birds, or gaining any information that would tend to substantiate the 

 fact." 



Probably not less than forty to fifty years separated 

 Jardine's visits from Booth's, so that the latter's failure to 

 see or hear of the Roseate Tern at the island affords, in 

 itself, no reason for doubting the former's record. The 

 Blackbird has, to my knowledge, nested on the May since 

 the early eighties. 



The first stage and with it alone this paper is concerned 

 in the ornithological history of the Isle of May here comes 

 to a close. An analysis of the data shows that the following 

 nineteen species were all that had been recorded up to this 

 point, i.e., for the period antecedent to the migration investi- 

 gations. 



Sea-birds and Waders ; Cormorant, *Shag, *Eider 

 Duck, Gulls (species ?), x *Kittiwake, *Common Tern, *Arctic 

 Tern, *Roseate Tern, *Sandwich Tern, *Common Guillemot 



1 In the Scottish Naturalist for January 1881, p. 5, Drummond Hay 

 makes the following surprising statement regarding the Great Black- 

 backed Gull ; " Its breeding-grounds nearest the Tay are the Bass and 

 the Isle of May." A few Herring Gulls now nest on the May. 



75 11 



