46 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



and the cormorant [shag ?] ; with innumerable flocks of 

 smaller birds not peculiar to the Bass." It is added (p. 322) 

 that, " The eggs of the sea-fowls that are sold, are those 

 only of the black and blue gull, at Is. 6d. a dozen." If the 

 measurement given for the " large black gull," namely, about 

 5 feet, being 3 inches more than that given for the herring 

 gull, was taken from a bird obtained on the Bass, it points 

 undoubtedly to L. marinus rather than to L. fuscus. 



We come now to the volume entitled " The Bass Rock," 

 dated December 1847. The article on the Zoology was 

 contributed by Dr Fleming, but it throws little or no light 

 on our subject, beyond an indication of the scarcity of the 

 birds at that time, and the probable cause. This is what 

 he says : — " The Black -backed Gull, Larus marinus, is 

 enumerated among the feathered inhabitants of the Bass, 

 in the Statistical Account to which we have already referred. 

 We observed one single bird during one of our visits, and 

 while performing its usual evolutions, uttering its well- 

 known warning cry to all to hetuare." And of the Herring 

 Gull : — " This still occurs, but in very limited numbers." 

 Referring to the disturbance and persecution to which the 

 birds breeding on the Bass were then subjected — the fashion 

 of shooting sea-birds in the breeding season sprang up about 

 this time — he remarked that "the list ... in one season, 

 would not in all probability correspond in every particular 

 with that of another season, the difference arising from 

 causes sufficiently obvious." 



At this stage, an entry in Oates's " Catalogue of Eggs in 

 the British Museum," vol. i. (1901), p. 212, naturally falls 

 to be noticed. It is as follows — Larus marinus : — " 1. Bass 

 Rock, Salvin-Godman Coll." About two years ago, I asked 

 Mr Howard Saunders if he could tell me the history of this 

 specimen, and received from him the following reply : — " I 

 have been to the British Museum to-day and examined the 

 egg in question. It certainly looks like an egg of Larus 

 marinus, and you know that there is a ' character ' about 

 the egg of that bird, not quite indisputable, it is true. Still 

 I should say the odds are strongly in its favour. The entry 

 in Salvin'a own writing in his carefully kept Catalogue is — 



