NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS OF NORTH UIST 125 



keeper told me he killed fifty-four one year (in 1881) without 

 any trouble. This shows how common they must be, though 

 I never had the pleasure of seeing one myself. I arranged 

 with Donald to leave Lochmaddy and cross over to the west 

 side of the island to stop nearer him at an inn called 

 Carinish. I started from Lochmaddy at 6 A.M. on the 

 15th May and made over the hills to where we had left the 

 boat the previous evening. Having reached the boat and 

 spent half an hour in patching her up, for she leaked 

 woefully, we started to drag her over the moors to the next 

 loch ; on the way saw Stonechats, but could not find their 

 nest. Soon after, however, we found a nest of the Grey Lag 

 Goose, and then a Wild Duck rose from her nest in the long 

 heather close to the loch side. It was a most beautiful 

 structure, entirely composed of very dark coloured down, and 

 bound together as usual by heather twigs ; it contained nine 

 eggs. At this time two huge Gulls flew over the loch and 

 circled round us. I suspected they must have a nest near at 

 hand, so pulled the boat off to a small island and immediately 

 discovered the nest and three eggs of the Great Black-backed 

 Gull, clearly owned by the two huge Gulls above mentioned. 

 This was the third nest, each with three eggs, I had found in 

 three days, and I looked upon them as quite a prize, as these 

 birds, through being killed as vermin, will undoubtedly 

 become rare in our islands before many years in fact they 

 are scarce already. 



We then had to drag the boat a long way over terribly 

 rough ground, including the embankment forming the 

 main turnpike road across the island. On arriving at the 

 next loch, saw a pair of Redthroats and Mergansers, but, 

 though I searched every island on the loch, failed to find 

 their nest. Herring-gulls were very numerous here, just 

 beginning to lay. Grey Geese also were very common, and 

 we found three or four nests containing eggs. I was also 

 fortunate in finding, after a long search of nearly two hours, 

 another nest of Larus niarinns, placed on the summit of a 

 detached rock, rising about 2 feet out of the water ; 

 a Wheatear flew out of a hole under my feet here, and on 

 reaching the bottom of it, fully 18 inches below ground, 



