{Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 



The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 83.] 1918 [November. 



THE BIRDS OF NORTH UIST. 



By Fred. S. Beveridge, Lieut. 3rd Bn. The Royal Scots. 



In the following notes I have attempted to compile a 

 complete list of birds which have, to my knowledge, visited 

 North Uist. The most recent publications dealing with the 

 Outer Hebridean group seem now almost out of date, owing 

 to change in the distribution of species, and recent records 

 of new specimens. 



Since the late Dr Harvie-Brown's Vertebrate Fauna, no 

 work has dealt with this district in minute detail, and, in this 

 case, and rightly so, North Uist was not treated separately. 

 To describe all the features of the country would here be 

 irksome, nay, nothing short of a volume could accomplish 

 it. However, before submitting my list of birds, a few words 

 will hardly be out of place. North Uist and its multitude 

 of satellites are separated by some fifteen miles of sea (the 

 Little Minch) from the Island of Skye, which lies directly to 

 the east. Unfortunately, from an ornithological point of 

 view, it is not on any direct line of migration, though happily 

 on the very verge of one, and in consequence rare stragglers 

 are now and again recorded. There is but one lighthouse 

 of any dimensions which affords attraction to aerial 

 passengers, namely Shillay, the most westerly of the 

 Monach or Heisker group. An ample description of the 

 Monach Light may be found in Dr Eagle Clarke's admir- 

 able work on migration. 



S3 2F 



