Presidenfs Address. 303 



ance of the Isle of May purely from an ornithological point 

 of view, under the title — 



"The Isle of May:1 

 Its Fanned Position and Bird TAfeJ' 



1st, In the following paper it is my desire to describe the 

 Isle of May purely in its relationship to its faunal 

 position, and as regards its importance as a halting- 

 place or beacon-light in the path of the bi-annual 

 routes of migration of birds to and from the continent 

 of Europe in spring and autumn ; a position which it 

 holds in common with many other localities to the 

 southwards along the E. English coasts, but with very 

 few, indeed only two, other stations, viz.. Bell Eock 

 to the northward on the Fife coast, and Pentland 

 Skerries in the Pentland Firth, between the Orkney 

 Islands and the Caithness coast; although a third very 

 important path is not guarded by a beacon — viz., the 

 line of the great Moray Firth Migration. In order to do 

 this, it is necessary to allude to the relative positions of 

 certain lands at present separated from the Isle of May 

 by ocean, but formerly joined to it by land, which 

 latter, though now submerged, was continuous with 

 Europe, and reached out into the North Sea to what is 

 now known as The hundred-fathom line. I do not enter 

 upon this description with the intention of theorising 

 regarding migration on the same standard as Herr 

 Weissman did in his well-known paper in the Con- 

 temi^orary Bevieiv, although I am far from scoffing at 

 the theory he promulgated ; but I do so in order to 

 define both the past and the present faunal position 

 and importance of the Isle of May, and simply to 

 state broad facts known to our scientists. 



2d, It is also necessary, for a clearer perception of the 

 present faunal value of this position, to give, as 

 shortly as possible, some at least of the now un- 



1 From the Gaelic Eilean Maith, — the English interpretation meaning the 

 Good Isle. — A. Carmichael. 



