57 
on tlio cliff-face. Sctoii in his ‘St. Kilda’* compares the numbers 
of Puffins on our Scotch coasts -with tliose of other species, and 
instances Ailsa Craig and St. Kilda as two of its favourite haunts. 
Mr. Pobert Gray is perhaps correct in estimating the Puffin 
to be the most abundant species of sea-fowl on the west coast of 
Scotlandjt and certainly my experience of rock-birds’ breeding-stations 
would lead me to that belief. Mr. Gray notices that David Bodan— 
the powerful tacksman of Ailsa Craig-— killed for a wager, eighty 
dozen Puffins with a j)ole in one day. I feel very sure that an 
equally expert (and powerful) man would easily exceed this 
‘bag’ in a day on the Shiants, at more than one “coigne of 
vantage ” on the north and east shores, :^rr. Sands calculates that 
upwards of 89,G0U Puffins must have been killed by the St. 
Kildeans in 1876.^ I believe the Sliiants have e(iual cajiability of 
yielding these numbers. 
9. Guillemot. AUa irnile (L.). This species is most abundant 
I believe on Eilean-Jfhuire, only a few colonies, of no great size, being 
lound upon Garbh-eiloan. As I lay close to the sliingle isthmus, 
across which, about eight in the morning, an uninterrupted stream 
of sea-birds sped southwards, on their way to their feeding grounds 
in the IMinch, I endeavoured to count the birds by tens or 
twenties as they passed, but in vain ; but amongst the countless 
tliousands, Bazorbills and Guillemots were so scarce, that when 
I began to count them, I found that I had often to wait some 
time. At other times two or three passed in company. All 
these— Puffins, Bazorbills, and Guillemots— flew as far southward 
as I could follow them with a good binocular. In a return from 
Island Glass Lighthouse on Scaljia, my coriespondent writes : 
I ho sea-birds passing us I have not taken any notice of; of 
these there arc great numbers owing to their breeding on 'the 
Shiant Islands, distant about 8 miles.” Another year, however, I 
ho 2 )C to get him to record with as much care as possible these 
flights, as a number of similar records could hardly fail to bring 
‘St. Kilda Past and Present,’ by George Seton, .Advocate, Edin.. 1S78 
p. 1S9. 
t ‘ Birds of the AVest of Scotland,’ p. 436. 
+ ‘ Out of the World, or Life in St. Kilda,’ p. 89. 
