634 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



a promontory opposite Hermanness, and a former but long- 

 abandoned station o£ the Skua. Another pair selected as a 

 domicile the heights of Sneuga, some distance to the south of 

 Hermanness, and not on our land. Seven pairs sought again 

 asylum within the territory of their old protectors. I grieve 

 to say that both of the outlying nests were harried by egg- 

 stealers, and that neither of the pairs succeeded in hatching 

 their young. The Hermanness birds had a different fate ; 

 f or^ thanks to zealous and careful watching, the eggs in every 

 one of the seven nests were hatched out, and the young birds 

 were safely on the wing some weeks ago. This gratifying 

 result is greatly owing to the personal supervision and un- 

 wearied care of my nephew, Mr. Laurence Edmondston, of 

 Halligarth, from whose report to me I take the foregoing 

 particulars. 



" I may here repeat, what I had the honour of stating before 

 the Zoological Society last April, that in my opinion the 

 Skuas on Hermanness cannot be expected to increase much 

 beyond the number now attained. In years gone by, when 

 the colony reached 30 or 40 pairs, the two species of Gulls on 

 which the Skuas chiefly depend for their piratical system of 

 living, the Lesser Black Back and Herring Gull, were far 

 more numerous in and around Hermanness than they are 

 now. Protection for the Skuas implies some measure of 

 protection also for the Gulls, but unless the latter greatly 

 increase, the former cannot be expected to do so. In exist- 

 ing conditions, and pending a possible large increase in the 

 number of Gulls, it is nearly certain that the Skua colony 

 can only be increased by enlarging the area of ground pro- 

 tected.'' 



Birds extinct or becoming so in North America. — In the 

 last-issued Report of the U.S. National Museum attention is 

 drawn to the fact that seven species of birds in the North- 

 American list are either already extinct or are rapidly 

 becoming so. These are — the Great Auk [Plautus impinnis), 

 the Labrador Duck {Camptolaimus labradorius) , the Heath 

 Hen {Tympanuchus cupido), the Passenger Pigeon (Ecto- 



