SOME BIRD NOTES FROM SOUTH UIST 45 



SOME BIRD NOTES FROM SOUTH UIST. 



By Donald Guthrie. 

 {Concluded from " The Scottish Naturalist," 1919, p. 192.) 



The Common Gull. Nests in hundreds in South Uist, 

 where too numerous they eat up a lot of seed from the fields 

 and also devour a lot of eggs and young weakly birds. In 

 the Hebrides they play havoc among the young Landrails, 

 which are exposed to view on the clover fields being cut in 

 July. The pretty little Dunlin is continually being persecuted 

 at nesting time by the Common Gull, and on the moors the 

 Grouse suffer. 



The Great Black-backed Gull. The wilds of the 

 Hebrides seem to be the home of this beautiful but voracious 

 Gull ; it nests on small rocky islets on the wild mountain tarns^ 

 keeping aloof from all other Gulls by which it is abhorred 

 owing to its thieving habits in taking toll of their eggs and 

 young. It is wonderful how this Gull keeps company with 

 Seals, Otters, Falcons, etc., to partake of some of their spoil. 

 When Seals are basking on the rocks two or more Gulls 

 are often in attendance sitting on prominent places to give 

 warning of approaching danger, then picking up any refuse 

 left on the rocks by the Seals. They also help the Peregrine 

 by putting up flocks of Duck ; when the Falcon struck one 

 of these down into the water the Gulls ate it all, but on the 

 other hand if the Duck fell on land the Falcon was master 

 of the situation and the Gull only got the leavings. 



The Glaucous Gull. Is only a visitor to the Hebrides, 

 coming there after a severe storm from the north-west, it 

 gorges itself on any carrion it can find. One winter three 

 large dead whales came ashore in South Uist within a few 

 hundred yards of each other when all kinds of carrion-eating 

 birds gathered, including immature Glaucous Gulls. 



The Iceland Gull. Comes rather rarely to South 

 Uist, usually after heavy westerly gales, 



