VOL. VI.] SIBBALD'S PRODROMUS. 55 



As will be seen from the above translation of that portion 

 of the " Prodromus " which deals with the Ornithology of Scot- 

 land, and Avhich occupies some ten pages of the entire work,* 

 Sibbald's remarks contain but little original information, and 

 for the most part consist of a catalogue of birds, some of which 

 it is now almost impossible to identify, compiled on hearsay 

 evidence. In one or two instances however, where he had 

 been able to obtain the skin of a rare bird, such as the Black- 

 winged Stilt, which he was the first to record as a visitor to 

 the British Islands (c/. Yarrell, Vol. Ill, p. 305), Sibbald is 

 almost meticulous in his descriptions. His greatest sin of 

 omission is, however, in the case of the Great Auk, which he 

 merely records under the heading of those birds of which he 

 required a more accurate description. Sibbald's mention of 

 the Great Auk, " is the first printed notice of this bird as 

 British," and the first to record the name Gare as the anglicized 

 form of the Icelandic Geirfugl (c/. Newton, Dictionary of 

 Birds, p. 303). Of the bird itself, Sibbald unfortunately knew 

 nothing, and his information as to its existence was apparently 

 derived " from a MS. description of the Western Isles by Dean 

 Munro, drawn up about 1549." {Tom. ut supra.) In " An 

 Account of Hirta [i.e. St. Kilda] and Rona, Given to Sir Robert 

 Sibbald by the Lord Register Sir George McKenzie of Tarbert," 

 and published by William Auld together with other accounts 

 of the Hebrides, at Edinburgh in 1774, we are informed " that 

 of these foul . . . there is one called the Gare Foul which is 

 bigger than any goose, and hath eggs as big almost as those 

 of the Ostrich " (Auld, p. 63). 



In addition to those in the " Prodromus " some small notice 

 of the birds of certain districts in Scotland may be found in 

 two of Sibbald's other works, viz. The History . . . of the 



* A considerable part of the *' Prodromus," 114 pages in all, is devoted 

 to Botany, including the indigenous plants of Scotland, " a few rare 

 species made their first appearance in this book, particularly that which 

 LinuiBus named ' Sibbaldia,' after the author." Animals and fish are 

 also dealt with'somewhat fully. 



