blow of the pole. When this is properly done the neck is broken, and the birds fall, with the force of the wind, almost into the fowler’s lap; but they often recover themselves and fly away. Razorbills and puffins form the great proportion of the bag; but there are also a few guillemots killed in this way, though they do not come so close as the others, and the kittiwakes keep far below. I sat several times with a man who was killing birds in this way, and counted, as well as possible, the number of ringed guillemots which passed by. I found that they were in the proportion of about one to ten or twelve, which agrees with the observations of others on Handa Island and Ailsa Craig, I took several eggs, on which I actually saw a ringed bird sitting, and found they vary as much as the others, though more were marked with streaks than with blotches. I found considerable difference in the size of the puffins here, one of the largest of which had a beak so big that at first it made me almost doubt whether Fratercula glacialis could be a good species, more especially when I found it was fully as large as a specimen from Grimsey Island, near Iceland, kindly lent me by Mr. Tristram. All my doubts, however, were dispelled when I saw two specimens brought back from Spitzbergen by a brother-officer, which were at least a fourth larger than either of the others.
One day I crossed over the Sound of Mingulay, where a landing is by no means easy, owing to the tremendous sea which rises in the narrow channel separating the two islands. To give some idea of the height to which the waves rise in winter, I may say that a green sea lately came right over an island in the Sound, which looked as if it must be nearly 100 feet high, washing away all the sheep on it, though they had hitherto been con- sidered perfectly safe. On the west side of Mingulay the cliffs are even more stupendous than at Barra Head, rising in one place to over 800 feet, and are so smooth and perpendicular that even the kitti- wakes could hardly find a resting-place. The same birds are found here as in Berneray, with the addition of the stormy and fork-tailed petrels (Procellaria pelagica and P. leachi), a few of which breed in holes and cracks in the dry peat on the top of the cliffs. I did not find any eggs, but have no doubt that they do breed, as the natives distinguish the latter species by its forked tail, calling it “Gobhlangoidhe,” which expresses that peculiarity in Gaelic, and is used for the swallow in some parts of the Highlands. We found the names of birds here, as at St. Kilda, very different from those used in other islands, and, on returning to the village of Mingulay, took them down from an old man who had in his day been one of the best fowlers in the island. The razorbill is called “Dubhea- nach,” the guillemot Langaidh,” the old kittiwake "Crahoileag,” and the young one (which is a favourite dish) is called “Seaigire" the stormy petrel is called " Amhlaig,” and the Manx shearwater "Scraib." This bird was formerly very common, and the young ones, which were called "Fachach,” were so highly esteemed that a barrel of them formed part of the rent paid by each crofter in Mingulay to the Macneills of Barra. About a hundred years ago, however, the puffins, which before were not numerous, began to increase very much, and drove the shearwaters from the holes which they occupied in the cliffs; and now they have completely supplanted them, so that only a few pairs of shearwaters are left in the
