384 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
only speaks of the ‘‘ lighthouse-keeper”’ under Shearwater.* 
Of the much later actual residency at Barra Head we speak later 
on in its proper chronology. 
St. Kilda we hold alone of all these Hebride Isles was the home, 
in British seas, of the Fulmar Petrel in the nesting season. 
We now come to speak of the still greater confusion which 
has lasted—as, I hope, finally and once for all to prove—at least 
from some time previous to 1746, which is the date of Rev. 
Geo. Low’s MSS. Notes.t This confusion applies to the names 
carelessly spoken, carelessly applied, and confounded down to 
the present time, and still more confused even as late as Dec. 
31st, 1910, the date of the latest issue of the ‘Chart Index of 
the Hydrographical Department.’ 
We first take Rev. Geo. Low’s MSS., where there occurs a 
very pointed and significant passage as follows—and as it is in 
all probability matter fresh to most of our readers, and of con- 
siderable interest besides to naturalists, I give it in full and 
literally transcribed :— 
“About ten leagues W.N.W. from Hoy lies Soul-Skerry 
(more properly Seal-Skerry),§ a small islet, omitted by all the 
writers I have had an opportunity of seeing; it is said to be 
about a mile and a half in circumference; it hath only one 
landing place for boats, and in the middle of the island is a 
small lake. For some years past the people of Stromness have 
gone in the months of October and November to this island for 
Seals, which lie here in thousands amongst the luxuriant her- 
bage. There is always a number of men upon this expedition, 
* There would almost appear to be a fixed determination to keep these 
errors afloat, and to despise the correct place-names. ‘Thus, and at this 
eleventh hour, we find the confusing repetition: ‘‘ The most southerly breeding- 
place in the British Isles is Barra’”’ (cf. ‘ British Birds’ (Maga), July, 1911), and, 
as if one error was not enough at a time, that Maga supplements the above 
by a second, v2z. that “the only other nesting haunt on the mainland being 
Cape Wrath, Sutherland, which was first discovered to be the resort of these 
birds in 1901 ”; and this is perpetuated by ‘Nature’ of August 10th, p. 200. 
The correct statement is: ‘‘ The most southerly breeding- place in the British 
Isles is Barra-Head, two hundred and sixty-five miles south of Barray ” 
North Barray or Sulisgeir. They have not been correctly quoted as eons 
at Cape Wrath, but they do so at Clomore cliffs. They have also been 
recorded as nesting in Caithness, at Dunnet Head (see infra, part iii.). 
t 1778 being the date of his ‘printed account; see infra. 
t Whereupon Stack-and-Skerry are named ‘‘ Sule Skerry” and “ Stack 
Skerry,” again making confusion. 
S$ z.e. ‘more properly Seal’s Skerry.” —J. A. H.-B. 
