Recently published Ornithological Works. 189 



Snow-Bunting, which is resident throughout the year and 

 breeds near the top. The Notes on the Birds of St. Kilda, 

 compiled by the Rev. J. B. Mackenzie from his father's 

 memoranda, are continued and concluded. Of the Gannet, 

 we learn that "it is here called ' suileire,' the sharp-eyed/' 

 so that now the origin of the so-called " Scandinavian" and 

 Latinised Sula appears obvious — and Gaelic*. The descrip- 

 tions of the habits of the sea-birds, as well as of the mode 

 of collecting the harvest of the cliffs, are excellent ; while a 

 smile may be raised at the respective merits of Guillemots' 

 eggs, on their progress from freshness (through incubation) 

 to the unhatched and late-in-the-season stage, when some, 

 on being cooked, "look like a piece of sponge-cake, have 

 a high gamey flavour, and are esteemed a great delicacy." 

 The rendering into English of some of the Gaelic names is 

 very descriptive, and we do not remember to have seen them 

 explained before. Thus the Manx Shearwater is often 

 called " cromag," or crescent- shaped, from the appearance 

 of the wings during flight ; and the Puffin is "buigire" = 

 the damp-fellow, because he reaches the island a few days 

 earlier if the weather should be damper than usual. In this 

 case only the explanation is new, the Gaelic name being widely 

 spread, even to the north of Ireland. The latest news from 

 St. Kilda is contributed by Mr. James Waterston, who was 

 there from June 11th to July 10th, 1905, and records, among 

 other details, two examples of the Great Shearwater (Puffinus 

 gravis), picked up in a decomposed condition (pp. 201-2) . 

 A bird of this species was also found dead at Lendalfoot, 

 Ayrshire, on October 3rd, 1904, as mentioned by Mr. John 

 Paterson in his admirable Report on Scottish Ornithology 

 for 1904 (pp. 203-15). The erratic occurrences at the 

 Flannan Islands of the Black Redstart, Sedge-Warbler, and 



* Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley (' Fauna of the Outer Hebrides,' 

 p. 94, 1888) give " Sulaire—the eyed or the eyer," but that rendering is 

 less "happy" and convincing than Dr. Mackenzie's. Five years later 

 in the ' Dictionary of Birds,' pt. i. (published in 1893), Professor Newton 

 -writes (p. 300, footnote 1) : " Solan is no doubt from the Scandinavian 

 Sula, whatever that may mean." — H. S. 



