116 PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



Certainly no such spectacle presented itself to our vision, all the 

 rock-birds breeding in detached companies ; and in only one part of 

 the cliff could they be said to be breeding even in hundreds on 

 one ledge, ledges being almost absent. 



Earlier than this, in the beginning of the century, mention of St. 

 Abb's Head is made in a passage of a work which may prove worth 

 the trouble of reproducing. It is said, " There is a prodigious num- 

 ber of sea-fowls known by the name of Scouts and Kittiivakes, with 

 a mixture of Sea-gulls, that arrive in the spring yearly upon the 

 high and inaccessible rocks on the south side of St. Abb's Head. 

 They breed incredible numbers of young ; and about the end of 

 May, when the young are said to be ripe, but before they can fly, 

 the gentlemen in the neighbourhood find excellent sport by going 

 out in boats, and shooting great numbers of them. When they are 

 killed or wounded they fall from the rocks into the sea, and the 

 rowers lift them into their boats. Their eggs are pretty good, but 

 their flesh is very bad ; yet the poor people eat them. They leave 

 the rocks about harvest, and none of them are ever seen here before 

 the next spring. Where they go in winter nobody knows."* 



LIST OF SPECIES. 



Peregrine Falcon. Falco peregrinus, Tunstall. — Selby notes it 

 at St. Abb's Head, in June, 1833, and remarks upon the antiquity 

 of the eyrie. Hepburn speaks of four eyries at the date he wrote, 

 1850, upon the coast between Burnmouth and Fast Castle. Two 

 pairs were seen in 1859 on the Field day of the Berwickshire Club 

 there — 20th September. 



Kestrel. Falco tinnunculus, Lin. — Noted by Hepburn, but not 

 observed on the occasion of our visit. 



Sparrow Hawk. Falco nisus (Lin.). — Not seen by us, but noted 

 by other observers. 



Martin. Hirundo urbica (Lin.). — Breeds in the cliffs ; noted by 

 Selby, 1833 (loc. cit.J. In 1880 Martins seemed to be unusually 

 abundant at many cliff stations. A fluctuation of the Martin 

 population at many inland localities, has long been observed and 

 commented upon. The summer of 1880, it will be remembered, 



* Forsyth's " Beauties of Scotland," Edin., 1805. It is perhaps needless to 

 say that the date of the young being " ripe " by the end of May, is somewhat 

 premature, as it is after this period that the young of most rock-birds are 

 hatched out. 





