142 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



loose masses of rock upon the shores. There are small 

 colonies at Eamasaig, Dunvegan Head, and Miloveig. I have 

 often visited the latter colony, which inhabits the crevices 

 of the basaltic cliff, where the rock has become detached by 

 frost and weathering. The young are hatched in the last 

 week of June, and are covered with greyish black down ; the 

 bill of a newly hatched downy nestling is nearly black; tarsi 

 and toes, dark-purplish red ; w^ebs tinged with red. I shot a 

 Black Guillemot, with sandy flight feathers, on Dunvegan 

 Loch in 1884. A few breed off Tallisker. 



Merguliis alle. — Eare winter visitant, occasionally observed 

 off the Ascribs by Captain Macdonald. Dead specimens 

 were taken to Captain Cameron ; and Mr Dumville Lees has 

 likewise met with it. A bird, apparently of this species, 

 was captured on Fasach in the early spring of 1885, and 

 released by J. Macraild. 



Fratercida arctica. — Summer visitant, breeding in immense 

 numbers at the Ascribs, where it burrows in the turf, or 

 deposits its eggs under masses of rock. The young are 

 hatched at the beginning of July, rather later than the Black 

 Guillemot. Martin writes of Fladda : " the Coulter-nebs 

 are very numerous here ; it comes in the middle of March, 

 and goes away in the middle of August ; it makes a tour 

 round the Isle sunways before it settles on the ground, and 

 another at going away in August, which ceremony is much 

 approved of by the tenant of the Isle." Wilson gives a 

 description of this station, adding that the Puffin arrives at 

 the beginning of May, "literally covering the rocks and ledgy 

 cliffs with its feathered thousands," which disappear " exactly 

 on the 12th of August" (Vol. i., p. 408) ; an exactly similar 

 account appearing in the " New Statistical Account." 



Colymhus glacialis. — Winter visitant, haunting the Water- 

 nish Islands in December, and lingering into spring. I ob- 

 served a fine Great ISTorthern Diver there in April last 

 (1885). An adult was shot on Bracadale Loch, May 1878. 



Colymhus arcticus. — Casual visitant. Captain Cameron 

 took a clutch of eggs of the Black-Throated Diver, on a loch 

 in Soay, which he then rented, in 1882 ; and in the following 

 year, a representative of the Land League informed him that 



