490 Mr. C. Collier on the Birds 



XXXVII.— The Birds of the Island of Raasay. 

 By Charles Collier, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 



Although the avifauna of the Inner Hebrides has been most 

 fully investigated by Mr. Harvie-Brown, my friend the late 

 T. E. Buckley, R. Gray, and others, I think that it may not 

 be out of place, and may be of some interest, to record my 

 notes and observations made during a residence of nearly 

 seven years on one of the group. 



The island of Raasay is one of the most northerly of the 

 Inner Hebrides, lying between the north-east side of Skye 

 and the mainland of Ross ; about ten miles in a bee-line 

 from the latter, and from one to six miles from Skye. It is 

 about fifteen miles long, with an average breadth of two and 

 a half miles, the greatest height being 1450 feet. Taken as a 

 whole, it is very well wooded (about one thousand acres of 

 plantation and natural woodland), with numerous sheltered 

 conies, small burns, and lochs. There is very little arable 

 ground (about three hundred acres), which no doubt accounts 

 for the scarcity of some species. The facts of the population 

 being very small, and of the little interest taken by the island 

 boys in nesting, give a fearlessness to many birds which 

 I have never noticed elsewhere. Perhaps what struck me 

 most, although a well-known fact, was the regularity with 

 which the same birds came back year after year to breed in, or 

 quite close to, their old nesting-sites — birds with such diver- 

 gent habits as the Woodcock, Common Sandpiper, Ring- 

 Ousel, Peregriue Falcon, Kestrel, and Gold-crest. I give 

 the various instances under each bird's heading. In all I 

 noticed one hundred and forty species, of which eighty-nine 

 were breeding on the island. No doubt I overlooked many 

 immigrants and possibly a few breeding birds ; some migrants 

 I feel sure about, but shall not mention, as they were not 

 definitely identified. The large quantities of Ravens, Hooded 

 Crows, and Buzzards which regularly appeared after stormy 

 weather in September and remained until the following spring 

 were no doubt attracted by the rabbits, many hundreds of 

 the late litters dying during the winter. These and the hares 



