SPRING MIGRATION AT LITTLE ROSS IN I92O 149 



Six pairs of Oystercatchers, one pair of Herring-gulls, a 

 dozen pairs of Common Gulls nest on the island, but they 

 have a hard time to get their young reared owing to 

 rats and the Herring-gull, who steal eggs and young. 

 There is an island in the Sound, and upon it the Common 

 Gulls' nests are very numerous. 



How different now to sit on a quiet evening and see the 

 life and bustle on an outlying skerry. A few months ago 

 only a solitary Skart might have been seen ; now the air is 

 filled with circling birds, the cliffs all spotted with Gull, 

 Razorbill, Guillemot, and Black Guillemot, while high in 

 the air sounds the cry of the stately Peregrine, the grunt 

 of the Cormorant from their various colonies, also the croak 

 of the Raven and sharp call of the Jackdaw. From the hill 

 above these cliffs is heard the plaintive call of the nesting 

 Peewits. 



The Changing Habits of Birds. Perhaps the following 

 notes on the changed habits of birds which the writer has observed 

 in North Uist since 191 7, may be of interest. Since the beginning 

 of the war, this part of the island has been very lightly shot over, 

 so that we can put aside the assumption that the birds in question 

 have been frightened away. The war, no doubt, had an effect on 

 the migration of birds, but ever since November 1918, Snipe and 

 other migrants have not been nearly so numerous as in pre-war 

 days. The changed weather conditions of the last three years may 

 have something to do with the matter. The rainfall is much in 

 excess of what it was before the war, and the gales more frequent 

 and of longer duration. My object in writing this note, however, 

 is to give the facts as I have found them, and not to speculate on 

 the causes. I will begin with the Grey Lag Goose {Anseranser). 

 This goose breeds in North Uist and to my mind is as plentiful as 

 ever. In September large flocks came to the corn and did a lot of 

 damage, but since then I have hardly seen any. In former years 

 one would find them during the autumn and winter in the machair 

 almost every day. I have made enquiries throughout the island, 

 and find in every case complaints of the scarcity of the Grey Lag. 

 I am inclined to think that they are in South Uist. Take the 

 Bernicle Goose {Bemicla leucopsis), in former years during winter 

 and spring till the time of their departure, they were to be found in 



