of the Outer Hebrides. 21 



The late Professor William Macgillivray, though he resided 

 some time in Harris, where he, ia his younger days, was parish 

 schoolmaster, does not seem to have made so good a use of his 

 opportunities as might have been expected ; for he does not men- 

 tion some of the most interesting birds which are found there, 

 and, though living for some years in sight of St. Kilda, never paid 

 a visit to that extraordinary island. This apparent negligence on 

 the part of our countrymen may be accounted for by the unusual 

 difficulty of travelling among these islands ; whilst St. Kilda, 

 though not more than a hundred and twenty miles from the 

 mainland of Scotland, is surrounded by such a stormy and 

 dangerous sea, that it is very rarely visited, except by a smack 

 which goes annually from Skye to bring away the produce of 

 the island. I was very anxious to investigate some of John 

 Macgillivray^s statements with regard to the birds of the He- 

 brides, as, though they have been generally received without 

 doubt, I could not help thinking that he must have been mis- 

 taken in one or two points. 



First, as to the breeding of the Pink-footed Goose, which he 

 stated to be of common occurrence on the small islands in the 

 Sound of Harris. To mistake one species of Wild Goose for 

 another is not so difficult, as is shown by the fact that even so 

 good an ornithologist as Selby had previously been in error on 

 this subject, having supposed the Goose he found breeding in 

 Sutherland to be the Bean-Goose; and William Macgillivray 

 had also called the Goose of Harris the Bean-Goose*. 



When John Macgillivray wrote his paper, he was not more 

 than one-and-twenty years of age, and no doubt was but im- 

 perfectly acquainted with the distinctions between the different 

 species of grey Geese. Now, as Anser hrachyrhynchus had only 

 been recognized by British ornithologists as a new species a 

 short time before t, he may very easily have fallen into error 



* Cf. Iljis, 1865, p. 441. 



t The distinctness of this species was first established by Baillon, in 

 1833 (Mem. Soc. d'emulat. AbbeviUe, p. 74). Six years afterwards Mr. Bart- 

 lett described it as new, under the name of A. phoenicopiis (P. Z. S. 1839, 

 p. 3) ; but later in the same year Baillon (P. Z. S. 1839, p. 124) identified 

 the bird described by IVIr. Bartlett with his own. Yarrell soon after in- 

 cluded it in his work (Br. B. iii. p. 64, part xxvii. November 1841). 



