500 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



On three or four different occasions this bird lias been met with 

 in lona, and Dr Dewar has a specimen in his collection which he 

 captured in summer off the coast of Skye: it is also found occas- 

 sionally on the west side of the Long island, but it is worthy of 

 remark that in nearly every case these stragglers from the distant 

 rocks referred to are in an emaciated state. 



On the eastern shores of Scotland the Fulmar ranks only as a 

 straggling winter visitant. In East Lothian it is occasionally 

 found in December and January. I have seen specimens that 

 were cast up dead on the beach near Dunbar. Northwards, stray 

 examples have been recorded from Caithness-shire, and nearly all 

 the intervening counties. These individuals probably come from 

 breeding haunts situated to the north-east of Scotland, although I 

 cannot find any mention of such having yet been discovered. 



Writing from Shetland, Dr Saxby states that he has never seen 

 the Fulmar in a living state. " When in want of specimens," he 

 continues, " I send a gun out with the fishermen when they go to 

 the 'haaf.' The birds seem to be met with in great abundance 

 about thirty miles north of Uist, but it is singular that none 

 appear before the men begin to throw the offal overboard." In 

 Messrs Baikie and Heddle's MS. notes inserted in a copy of 

 their work, it is stated that one specimen was obtained at Scalpa 

 in 1849. 



The late Mr John Macgillivray, who visited St. Kilda in June, 

 1840, and afterwards published an account of his visit in the 

 ' Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal,' has remarked that the 

 eggs of the Fulmar are much esteemed by the natives, who gratify 

 their partiality by robbing all the nests in the month of May, and 

 apparently trust to the bird laying a second time. 



The following account from another source, judging from the 

 dates given, obviously refers to a second raid on its haunts, more 

 exciting in the details than mere egg taking: "The young 

 Fulmer is valued by the natives more than all the other tribes of 

 birds taken together: it may be said to be their staff of life; they 

 therefore never meddle with the egg. The 12th day of August, if 

 a notable day in the moors, is more so in the rocks of St. Kilda : 

 a day or two before every rope is tested, every oil-dish cleaned, 

 every barrel emptied. Some of these ropes are older than their 

 owners, and are chiefly made of thongs from cow-hide, salted, and 

 twisted into a cable. The 12th arrives, the rope is made fast 



