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NOTES ON THE MICRO-FAUNA OF AILSA CRAIG. FIRTH OF CLYDE. 153 
Notes on the Micro-fauna of Ailsa Craig, Firth of Clyde. 
By Tuomas Scott, F.L.8., Corresponding Member. 
[Read 30th November, 1897.] 
THERE was published in 1895, by the Rev. Robert Lawson, of 
Maybole, a new and enlarged edition of a rather interesting 
brochure on the History and Natural History of Ailsa Craig. 
This “lonely isle of the sea” is fully described by Mr. Lawson, 
and as the description is written in a plain and easy style, and 
illustrated by a series of fairly accurate and characteristic wood- 
cuts, the wayfarer who happens to be stranded on the Craig, and 
who has a copy of this little book as companion and guide, will 
have his visit made both interesting and instructive. In that 
portion of the little work which deals with the natural history 
of Ailsa Craig, Mr, Lawson gives an account of its avi-fauna, and 
there is also an extensive list of plants, including both phzno- 
gams and cryptogams, that were collected on the island by the 
late Professor Balfour and a party of students in 1845 ; but there 
is very little information about any of the other natural history 
groups. Reference is made to the occurrence of the Slow-worm 
and a few other organisms, but that is all. It may be that the 
apparent barrenness of the rock has stood in the way of a very 
minute examination being made of it, or perhaps the interest 
in its bird-life may have usually monopolised the time of visitors 
with a taste for natural history pursuits; but, whatever be the 
reason, little appears to have been done in the investigation 
of its invertebrates. Like the Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth, 
Ailsa Craig is, no doubt, pre-eminently the home of the sea birds, 
and truly, if during the breeding season one takes a cruise round 
the island, and views the great multitude of birds, watches their 
ceaseless activity, and listens to the strange sounds produced by 
- the blending of their varied and ineessant cries, the whole forms 
_a combination indescribable, and as each moment brings into view 
some new and interesting scene, words fail to describe one’s 
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