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Art. II . — List of Birds found in the district of Harris , part 
of the outer range of the Hebrides. By Mr W. Macgilli- 
vray. Communicated by the Author. 
The district of Harris is composed of rocky mountains and 
irregular eminences, with narrow valleys, and inconsiderable 
tracts of nearly plain land. The latter are, in general, covered 
with peat soil, in which the three common ericse of Scotland 
are the predominant plants, associated with carices, scirpi, 
eriophora, and a few grasses: the former are in many places 
bare of soil and vegetation, not unfrequently heathy* and some- 
times green with carices, junci, and the hard grasses, such as 
Melica cocrulea, Aira flexuosa, Nardus stricta, Foa alpina. The 
greater part of the country exhibits no marks of cultivation ; 
and it is only along the shore that the small and unconnected 
portions of the cultivated land occur. This cultivated part is 
separated from the interior by dikes of turf or of stone, and it 
is called the part <s within dikes.” The interior is named 
u without dikes,” that is, considered relatively to the hamlets or 
huts of the inhabitants, which are always on the sea-shore. 
The shore is irregular, formed into lochs, bays, and creeks; 
along the east and south coast rocky, on the west rocky in some 
places, and sandy in others. In each of the valleys there is one 
or more streamlets, but no considerable river is found in the 
whole district. The lakes are very numerous, and are all in the 
interior or uncultivated part. From the summit of one of the 
hills I have counted upwards of 120, the largest being nearly 
three miles in length, the smallest about forty yards. The lakes 
are commonly destitute of such plants, as afford food and shelter 
to aquatic birds. Hence the fresh-water birds are not nu- 
merous. The beautiful Nymphsea alba, the Lobelia Dortmanna, 
Menyanthes trifoliata, Potamogeton natans, Scirpus lacustris and 
palustris, Carex riparia and others, Sparganium natans, are the 
common lacustrine plants. The variety of plants which occur 
in the cultivated parts, particularly in those where sand predo- 
minates, is very great. They are precisely such as are found 
on the sandy tracts of the east coast of Scotland, about Aber- 
deen, for instance. This is the case also with regard to the ma- 
ritime rupestrine plants. There are no woods or coppices ; the 
