

NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 183 



1819. — This Irvin repeats, and speaks of them thus: — " Havel- 

 skyra : Havelskyre ; an island. Helskir Vetularum, vel Hilkyr Na- 

 monich: Helskyr Egach; and Helskir na Menl: these are three 

 little islands that lie three miles to the west of Uist, belonging to 

 the lairds thereof."* 



1764. — It is also referred to by Macaulay, who had landed there 

 when on his way to St. Kilda. He speaks of it as " accessible in 

 a single place only," but this is hardly correct, as I will shew later 

 on. He refers also to the Great Seals, and describes the method 

 by which many Cormorants were taken in the western caves which 

 terminate the deep goes, and he speaks of the great abundance of 

 the wild-fowls' eggs, f 



1869. — Capt. H. J. Elwes visited Haskeir in a boat from N. 

 Uist on June 30th, 1868, and he gives us a short notice of it in his 

 admirable paper in the Ibis for 1869. j He found breeding there a 

 large colony of Sterna arctica, of which, in the beginning of the same 

 month this year, I saw no trace whatever. In Newton Bay, how- 

 ever, one of our men found an egg the day previous to our visit. 

 Capt. Elwes succeeded in landing on Haskeir Aag, and on this 

 second island from the south found fresh eggs of Cormorants, 

 while on the rock also were a good many Herring Gulls and Great 

 Black-backed Gulls, and one pair of Oyster-catchers. 



The Island of Haskeir, with its outlying skerries of Haskeir Aag, 

 as shewn upon the Admiralty Chart, § is described in the accom- 

 panying Sailing Directions|| in the following terms: — 



" Haskeir Islands, two in number, are distant from each other 

 one miie in an E. by N. J N. and W. by S. J S. direction. The 

 easternmost and highest, which lies N.W. J N.-, 6 J miles from 

 Griminish Point, North Uist, and jST.N.E. £ E., 10J miles from 



* " Historiae Scoticae Nomenclatura Latino- Vernacula. " 1819. 



t " The History of St, Kilda, containing a description of this remarkable 

 Island," &c, &c. By the Rev. Mr. Kenneth Macaulay, Minister of Ardna- 

 murchan, Missionary to the Island from the Society for Propagating Christian 

 Knowledge. London: 1764. 



t " Bird-stations of the Outer Hebrides." By Henry John Elwes, Lieut 

 and Capt. Scots Fusilier Guards, F.Z.S. Ibis: 1869, p. 20. 



§ Published and sold by James Imry & Son from the latest surveys. 1881. 

 Two landing-places are shewn on the Chart. 



|| Sailing Directions for the West Coast of Scotland. Part I. Hebrides or 

 Western Isles. London: 1874. 



