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president's address. 
occasion as on the first. It is tiring work, but I remember 
well on this occasion, whilst w r e were unroping him for the 
last time, we caught sight of a very unusually marked clutch 
of Kittiwake eggs in a nest low down and in a most unget- 
at-able position. He was quite eager to go down again to 
get these ; but I’m glad to say we did not allow him to take 
the risk. 
I have taken considerable pains to try and get as complete 
a list as possible of the birds that are known to nest on Handa, 
and in the compilation of this list I have had the advantage 
of the experience and shrewd observation of Donald Morrison, 
who for the past 27 years has been the Duke of Sutherland’s 
keeper on this part of his estate. The birds enumerated 
below have, except when otherwise stated, quite recently 
nested on the island. 
Corvus corax (Raven). This is a resident species. For 
the past twenty-seven years at least, so I am informed by 
Morrison, Ravens have bred on Handa. Now and again 
their young ones have been taken or killed, and whenever 
this has happened, the old birds would shift the next year to 
the mainland, only to return again the following year to their 
old haunts. A pair of Ravens nested on Handa in 1906, but 
not last year, and whether or not they have returned to the 
island this year is not yet known, as up to the present the 
weather has been too stormy for boats to land. Of the many 
species of birds that nest on Handa the Raven is the first 
to lay her eggs ; they are usually found at the beginning 
of March. 
Corvus cornix (Hooded or Grey Crow). Another resident 
species. A pair or two of these birds regularly breed on the 
island and, when I visited it last year, the site of a nest 
on the west side was pointed out to me. 
Falco peregrinus (Peregrine Falcon). On the western 
side of the island there still remains the site of the nest of the 
White-tailed Sea Eagles which formerly bred here. But, 
