2056 Birds. 



ronald we were fortunate in obtaining three pairs of the red-necked phalarope, evi- 

 dently just arrived, and out of one Mr. Graham took a perfect egg. It does not seem 

 a fact generally known, that the bird with the neck and throat most deeply coloured, 

 and if anything the larger of the two, is the female. This we ascertained to be the 

 case in each of the three specimens we obtained. They were very tame, allowing us 

 to come within a few yards of them. They were in company with the dunlins. 



On the 5th of June we made an excursion to the lakes in the interior of the island, 

 accompanied by Lord Macdonald's keeper and a party of stout islanders, carrying a 

 light boat from loch to loch. On Loch Scatavagh we expected to have met with 

 geese, but their nests had been robbed, and they had left the islands in the loch. Here 

 the three different kinds of gulls were breeding abundantly. On one of the islands 

 we rose a jack snipe, apparently from its eggs, which we sought for in vain. On 

 Loch Ean (the Bird Lake) we saw several arctic skuas, and found one egg deposited 

 on the ground without any nest. They had only just begun to lay, being three weeks 

 later than any of the other gulls. Here we found the black-throated diver breeding, 

 and obtained two eggs. The old birds again eluded us, though my brother got a fine 

 shot at the female with cartridge ; unluckily too near, for the cartridge passed close to 

 the bird's head without bursting. The nest had been robbed before, and the birds had 

 a second time chosen precisely the same locality for depositing their eggs, which were 

 laid, without any nest, close to the water's edge. We saw several pairs of wild geese 

 late in the evening, but could not be sure which kind they were of. We heard that in 

 winter the quantity and variety of wild-fowl in this island is wonderful. The whim- 

 brel, called here the mayfowl, is in abundance, but never remains to breed. We saw 

 no greenshanks, mentioned as not an uncommon bird by Mr. Mc Gillivray. 



I cannot close my account of North Uist without expressing my admiration at the 

 exertions of Lord Macdonald, so fully carried out for the benefit of the people by Mr. 

 Macdonald and the Rev. Mr. Mc Rae. I should be sorry to make any comparison 

 with the sister kingdom, but the state of North Uist affords a bright example of how 

 much good may be done, even with small means, by a landlord anxious for the 

 good of his tenantry, when aided by a zealous factor, and an active, kind-hearted 

 clergyman. 



After being most hospitably entertained in North Uist, we returned back to our 

 kind friends at Rowdil, and made preparations for our voyage to St. Kilda, for which 

 we hired a very comfortable little cutter of forty tons, formerly engaged as the mail- 

 packet between Skye and Harris, well manned by an able crew of five men, which in 

 most seasons of the year is necessary, for the navigation is dangerous, from the cur- 

 rents and storms rising up very suddenly. We were to be taken to St. Kilda, back to 

 Rowdil, thence to Stornaway, and to be landed at Loch Inver, in Sutherlandshire, for 

 £ 17. Our starting-place was Ob, the south-west point of Harris, where we were de- 

 tained three days by contrary winds. Our companions were, the Rev. Neil Macken- 

 zie, the former clergyman of St. Kilda, to whose kindness and zeal we were mainly 

 indebted for the great success we met with, and who was anxious for a passage to vi- 

 sit his old flock, — and the Rev. Mr. Macdonald, the clergyman of Harris, in which 

 parish St. Kilda is situated, and whose services as an interpreter we found very useful 

 in an island where not a word but Gaelic is understood. The distance from Ob is 

 is about sixty miles, but from Cape Groemenish, on the west coast of North Uist, it is 

 but forty-two ; perhaps the most treacherous passage ever made in those seas. We 

 weighed anchor on the 12th of June, at six in the morning, with a favourable wind, 



