ST. KILDA AND ITS BI&DS. 321 



there, drawn almost entirely from personal observations, 

 and from information collected on the spot, might present 

 some points of interest, and serve as an introduction to 

 what I have to say about the birds. 



The island group of St. Kilda, consisting of St. Kilda 

 proper, and of three subsidiary islands, Boreray, Soay and 

 Dun, lies about fifty miles due west of the sound of 

 Harris. The main island, St, Kilda proper, or Hirta, as 

 it was formerly called, is about 2\ miles broad, and 2^- 

 miles in extreme length from, one point to the other. 

 Boreray is situated about four miles to the north-east of 

 the main island, Soay lies near its north-west corner, and 

 is separated from it by a sound some 400 yards across, 

 whilst Dun is practically a projection of the southernmost 

 point of the island towards the south-east, being only 

 separated from it by a narrow strait — the Dun passage — • 

 which can be crossed at extreme low water by jumping 

 from boulder to boulder. The Dun forms a splendid 

 breakwater against the southerly and south-westerly gales, 

 and without it St. Kilda would probably 'be uninhabitable. 

 There are also several isolated stacks, or rocky islets, which 

 from an ornithological point of view, are of much interest, 

 the chief being, Stacks an Armin and Lii, off Boreray, 

 Soay Stack and Biorrach in Soay Sound, and Levenish, 

 which lies about 1^ miles almost due east of the point of 

 the Dun. The best map of the island, and indeed the only 

 authentic one, is that published by Mr. Norman 

 Heathcote (1), who spent about two months there in the 

 summer of 1899, surveying the islands, and to his careful 

 work every visitor to St. Kilda stands much indebted. 



St, Kilda is remarkably hilly — you cannot go anywhere 

 without a climb — and there is scarcely a level spot in the 

 whole of the island. With the exception of two bays, 

 Village Bay, facing south-east, and West Bay towards the 



