432 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



of his visit to the Hebrides in 1549 ; a notice (evidently 

 borrowed from the above) of the same bird, in a description 

 of Scotland by J. Monipennie, 1612 ; a passing allusion to 

 the eagle and the puffin (shearwater) in Hugh Miller's 

 " Cruise of the Betsey," 1859 ; some eight or nine references 

 in Gray's " Birds of the West of Scotland," 1871 ; a note by 

 the last-named author, on the shearwaters, in the Proceedings 

 of this Society for Session 1877-78 ; and a few interesting 

 observations communicated to the Zoologist in November 

 1882 by the Eev. H. A. Macpherson of Glendale, Skye, are 

 all that I have been able to find. As far as I can discover, 

 neither M. Martin nor James Wilson says anything about 

 the birds that may have been seen on Eigg when they re- 

 spectively visited it in the course of their celebrated pere- 

 grinations among the Western Isles. 



The annexed list includes eighty-four species, fifty of which 

 were observed by myself. The list, in which residents and 

 summer visitants predominate, is of course very far from 

 being a complete one, and would be largely added to by any 

 competent ornithologist resident on the island during winter 

 and at the periods of the spring and autumn migrations. Such 

 local lists, although incomplete, are nevertheless of value, as 

 far as they go, in enabling us to determine with greater ac- 

 curacy the precise areas of distribution of individual species, 

 and in affording the means of comparison with future ob- 

 servations ; and it is in the hope that these notes may be of 

 some such service that I venture to bring them before you. 



List of Species. 



1. Aqtcila chrysaetos (Golden Eagle). — A male golden 

 eagle was seen by Dr Stark on 24th April 1879 flying about 

 the island. Dr Stark remarks that this and the next species 

 come from Bum, where they breed, to hunt for rabbits. The 

 rabbit and the brown rat are, I am informed, the only quad- 

 rupeds in a wild state on Eigg. 



2. Haliaetus albicilla (White-tailed Eagle). — Occasionally 

 comes over from Bum and Skye. In Gray's " Birds of the 

 West of Scotland," published in 1871, the Scuir of Eigg is 

 mentioned as a breeding station ; and the Bev. H. A. Mac- 



