1 9 1 4- 1 9 * 5-] Wild-Fowl in Outer Hebrides & Midlothian. 1 7 1 



by fracture. Curiosities are veins with minute nests of 

 specular iron on crystals of quartz, pyrites, and small 

 cavities filled with bitumen. 



[Numerous lantern-slides and specimens were shown in 

 illustration of the above.] 



XL— NOTES ON WILD-FOWL IN THE OUTER 

 HEBRIDES AND IN MIDLOTHIAN. 



By Mr TOM SPEEDY. 

 {Read March 24, 1915.) 



Out on the Atlantic, on our way to Barra, the sail would have 

 become monotonous but for the accompaniment of bird life. 

 Espying a dark-coloured bird, I recognised it as a specimen 

 of Kichardson's skua. This pirate bird rarely takes the trouble 

 to fish for itself, but watches other gulls thus employed ; and 

 directly it sees one successful in catching a fish it gives chase, 

 when from fright the pursued bird disgorges the recently 

 swallowed food. So rapid is the flight of the skua that it 

 captures the prize before it reaches the water. I called my 

 companion's attention to the bird, and it shortly demonstrated 

 its habit before our eyes. This habit of the skua, and that of 

 the cuckoo leaving other birds to hatch its eggs and rear its 

 young, are mysteries in nature beyond our ken. 



Though a number of varieties of gulls followed us at first, 

 only three convoyed us all the way. These were the great 

 black-back, with pinkish-coloured feet and beak ; the lesser 

 black-back, with yellow beak and feet ; and the well-known 

 herring gull. All these three are carnivorous, and do incal- 

 culable destruction on our moorlands, where eggs and chicks 

 find their way into their capacious maws, as well as the 

 salmon-parr and smolts in our streams. On inland tarns 

 whole broods of young ducks are destroyed by these 

 predatory birds. 



