404 Proceedings of the Uoycd Physical Society. 



Brown estimated its length at half a mile, and it seemed to 

 me to be about a quarter of a mile wide. There are cliffs on 

 the north-east side and also on the south-west. I at once 

 " made tracks " for the rounded hill before mentioned, and 

 finding a burrow of some sort on the western slope, I com- 

 menced digging with my hands, because I had found at 

 Eona that this was the best way of discovering petrels' breed- 

 ing haunts, j^n old sheath-knife or piece of stick is a great 

 help, but a spade breaks too many eggs. The burrow I was 

 working at looked like a puffin's or a rabbit's, but I soon 

 found that small burrows, like rat-holes, branched off from 

 the main one in all directions. After about half an hour's 

 hard work I found a storm petrel, but no ^gg. I persevered, 

 and finally, after digging out about half a dozen birds, I was 

 rewarded by finding an ^gg. I then moved round to the 

 northern slope of the hill, and when the two men joined me, 

 we all set to work at another large burrov/, and after some 

 hours' hard digging, the total bag amounted to only four 

 eggs, although we had dug out over twenty birds, which we 

 let away. These birds are much more lively when just 

 taken out of their burrows than is the case with Procellaria 

 leucorrhoa, the former biting and scratching and squirting oil 

 through their nostrils with great vigour, while specimens of 

 the fork-tailed petrel struggle little, and generally content 

 themselves with ejecting the offensive liquid. 



After this I took a walk round the island and gathered 

 a few eggs, but, as it was now getting on in the season, I 

 was anxious to get home, and went on board and bore away 

 for Loch Moidart. 



Mr Harvie-Brown, however, visited all the other islands 

 except South Ascrib, which I fancy is of the least import- 

 ance from an ornithological point of view.^ 



I now give a list of the birds seen on the Ascrib Islands 

 on both visits. 



1. Saxicola cenanthe (Linn.) — Wheatear. — Harvie-Brown 



1 Mr Harvie-Brown, however, afterwards ascertained this island had been 

 the principal nesting resort of the Storm Petrel, though now nearly ousted by 

 the intrusiveness of the Puffin. Captain Macdouald of Stein and Waternish 

 — the proprietor — supplied this information viva voce. 



