10 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



Thirty years ago the Erne was often observed in the parish of 

 Hamilton, according to the Rev. William Patrick a good observer 

 in his day; and in several other inland districts in Lanarkshire, 

 Ayrshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, and Wigtownshire, similar records 

 might be given of its past existence. But even at the present 

 time stray specimens are found wandering as far into the Firth of 

 Clyde as Dunoon the captures in such instances, however, being 

 confined to birds of the year after they have been thrown off by 

 the old ones. Ailsa Craig, formerly a breeding station, is now 

 only visited by a passing vagrant; and in Islay two well-known 

 eyries one at the Mull of Oe, the other at Bolsa have for some 

 years been entirely deserted, although stray birds still visit the 

 island. 



One of the most picturesque eyries of the Erne on the west coast 

 is perhaps that placed on the breast of one of "Macleod's Maidens," 

 a group of three sharp pointed stacks of rock on the coast of Skye. 

 Among other breeding stations may be enumerated the Scuir of 

 Eigg, Scalpa, North Uist, Shiant Isles, Wiay, Benbecula, several 

 in Harris, and also in Lewis. The eyrie on the largest island of 

 the Shiant group is perfectly inaccessible; it was referred to by 

 Martin nearly two hundred years ago in his " Description of the 

 Western Islands of Scotland," and has probably been tenanted 

 regularly ever since. On the mainland the breeding localities are 

 much less numerous than in the islands; there are still, however, 

 although I have no wish to see their privacy invaded, a number of 

 frequented eyries in several of the counties stretching from Cape 

 Wrath to the Mull of Galloway. My friend Mr Brown, whose ample 

 and highly interesting manuscript journals have been most gener- 

 ously placed at my service, takes notice of one eyrie in the district 

 of Assynt in Sutherlandshire, and refers to another pair of birds 

 which bred on the island of Handa in 1867, but which were 

 banished from the place by a shepherd destroying the female on 

 her nest. Since this occurrence none have frequented the cliffs 

 there. Shepherds have no doubt cause to look upon eagles as their 

 enemies, as they are occasionally destructive to young lambs; and 

 game preservers have perhaps an equal right to complain of their 

 poaching propensities among grouse and hares. It cannot, how- 

 ever, be denied that the Sea Eagle oftener feasts upon carrion than 

 upon living animals, and that in the most of cases where lambs are 

 actually lifted the offence is to a great extent mitigated by the 



