260 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



to me when shot to be in perfect plumage. H. Scrymgeour- 

 Wedderburn (Lieut.-Colonel), Kingennie, by Dundee. 



Scarcity of Razorbills and Guillemots. I have read with 

 much interest in the Scottish Naturalist for October the note 

 by Mr Charles Kirk upon the scarcity of Razorbills and Guillemots 

 on Ailsa Craig this year. Miss Maud Haviland and I have just 

 lately been on Rathlin Island, not many miles to the westward 

 of Ailsa, and there the people report the same thing, that on 

 the cliffs, where the eggs lay so thick in years past that the birds 

 could not move for stepping on them, this spring there were hardly 

 any nesting there at all. This was attributed to the blasting of 

 the limestone cliff on the southern side of the island, and also 

 the building of the new lighthouse on the western end; but in 

 neither case would this have affected birds nesting on the north- 

 east cliffs. As your correspondent suggests, there must be some 

 outside reason for this general departure of the birds from their 

 natural haunts; one can hardly imagine that it is the food question, 

 though that seems a possible solution. I shall be interested to 

 see if any other of your readers report the same disappearance 

 in other quarters. Mary G. S. Best, Longparish, Hants. 



The Scandinavian race of the Lesser Black-backed 

 Gull in Forth. When at Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, on 15th 

 September last, my attention was arrested by a particularly dark- 

 mantled Lesser Black-backed Gull standing on some floating 

 timber in the harbour. Binoculars in hand, I watched it for fully 

 half an hour from a distance of only 30 to 40 yards, so that 

 every detail of its coloration was perfectly seen. It had all the 

 appearance of a fully adult bird. Compared with other Lesser 

 Black-backs which were resting a few yards from it, the darker 

 colour of the mantle was very evident ; indeed, it was as dark 

 as a Great Black-back standing close by. In view of the recent 

 separation of the Lesser Black-backs breeding in this country 

 as a racial form distinct from the typical darker-backed Scandinavian 

 bird (if. article by Dr Percy R. Lowe, British Birds, vi., 2), 

 specimens of this species (Lams fu setts) secured in Scotland during 

 autumn, winter or spring are much to be desired. Meantime 

 I feel justified in recording the bird I saw at Grangemouth as 

 an example of the dark-backed Scandinavian race. Lesser Black- 

 backed Gulls were, I may add, unusually abundant in Mid and 

 West Lothian during the spring and summer of this year, flocks of 

 300 to 400 having come under my observation several times. 

 William Evans. 



