president’s address. 
507 
level. For the most part it is covered with grass and heather, 
and sheep are fed upon it. At one place on the north side 
a large mass of rock has become separated by some 20-30 
yards from the main island, and this is known as the Great 
Stack. The sea has washed its way into the base of this 
stack so that it now stands upon four pillars. The sheer 
sides of the Great Stack are also intersected by parallel 
ledges, and these alone provide accommodation for many 
thousands of birds. 
When birds are seen in very large numbers it is extremely 
difficult to estimate, with any degree of accuracy, their 
numerical strength ; but I think I may safely say that, during 
the breeding season, there are on Handa considerably over 
a million birds. On one section of ledge, some four yards 
long, I counted 70 Guillemots, and as there are about twenty 
of these ledges rising in superimposed tiers on a cliff line 
nearly two miles in extent, this will perhaps give a better 
idea of the number of birds, especially if it be borne in mind 
that they are often three and four deep on the ledges. One 
would think it impossible the birds should remember the site 
of their individual eggs, but this does not seem to be the case. 
As I lay on the cliffs I watched numbers of Guillemots returning 
from long distances on the sea, and they would invariably 
fly almost in a straight line for their eggs. 
There is no systematic taking of eggs on Handa, as there 
is at some breeding-places, e.g., at Flamborough Head ; but 
at the same time, by employing a cragsman from Scourie, 
almost every variety of the Guillemot’s and Razor-bill’s eggs 
can be obtained. 
I was much impressed with the care that these men take 
over their work. After going over the cliffs some hundreds 
of times, one might think they would become negligent of 
details. But that is not so. On one of my visits, Donald 
Morrison must have gone down at least twenty times for me, 
and he was just as careful to test the ropes, etc., on the last 
