seen on the east than the west coast of the island, Mr. R. Warren informs me that it is a regular visitor every autumn to the west coast of Ireland, where he resides. Nowhere, however, can it be called plentiful, and the late great flight is thus the more remarkable and worthy of notice. They seem as usual to have struck the east coast, where the first recorded specimen of the year was observed on the first of October, 1879, at Portobello, on the Frith of Forth. Within a few days thereafter they appeared simultaneously in large numbers at various points, such as Berwick, Dunbar, North Berwick, Portobello, Queensferry, Kincardine, and elsewhere on the east coast of Scotland; also, at Lochmaddy, in the Hebrides, and in the river and estuary of the Clyde. Large numbers also were seen, and many obtained, at various points on the east and south coasts of England, as recorded in the Field newspaper, Zoologist, and elsewhere.* Confining the present observations, however, to Scotland, I shall give, as far as I have been able to ascertain, an approximate list of those which were obtained or observed at various points, chiefly on or near the coast, giving the dates of capture where I have found it possible to obtain them. Beginning in the north, and coming down the east coast, I find recorded as follows:

:

Caithness: Wick: One, early in October.

Sutherland: Brora: Two seen flying south, by Mr. T. E. Buckley, on 13th October, when grouse-shooting at Kintradwell.

Banff: The Rev. G. Gordon of Birnie records a Skua having been found dead by one of the Duke of Richmond's keepers at Glenfiddich, in the south of the county; but this may not have been S. pomatorhinus.

Forfar and Fife: Frith of Tay: None are again recorded until reaching this estuary, where they seem to have appeared in considerable numbers, in company with Richardson's Skua. The Rev. J. E. Somerville, of Broughty Ferry, writes that a friend of his, who knows the birds well, saw more Pomatorhine Skuas in one day last autumn than he had ever seen previously during all his life, though a keen observer. They were seen flying above the Tay Bridge, and numbers were to be found sitting on the Abertay

* For full papers on these occurrences on the English coasts vide Stevenson, Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc., 1880, p. 99; also, Dr. C. Brown, Proc. Berwick Nat. Club, 1879, pp. 54 and 169, and various writers in the Zoologist, 1880, pp. 18-23, 90-97, 108-109.

sands, on the Fife shore. The following are recorded as having been obtained in this district:

Oct. 17.-Two were shot by Mr. P. Henderson, naturalist, Dundee.

Oct. 23.-One shot, and sent to Messrs. Hope, Edinburgh, for preservation.

Oct. 26.-Seven were shot, adult and young, and taken to Mr. Henderson for preservation.

East Lothian: 1. Dunbar: Many hundreds were observed in the neighbourhood of this place, numbers of them sitting on the pier, apparently much exhausted; and Mr. R. Gray states that he has examined upwards of 40 specimens which were obtained here during the early part of October. 2. Aberlady: Two, a male and female, were shot here, on 23rd October. 3. North Berwick: Dr. J. L. Crombie writes that large flights of Skuas were seen here during the month of October, the first being on the 14th of that month. Many of them were in fine plumage, with the tail feathers complete. I find the following recorded as obtained here, all of which were sent to Messrs. Small, Edinburgh, for preservation—

Two of these birds were of the uniform and very dark plumage afterwards referred to. 4. Prestonpans: Five were obtained in October, two of which were preserved by Mr. Hay, naturalist, there.

Midlothian: 1. Portobello: Several were seen here, and the following recorded as obtained

Oct. 1.-One, a male, preserved by Messrs. Small.

14.-Four, one male, and three females, all preserved by Messrs. Hope, Edinburgh.

Nov. 3.-One found dead by Mr. Caldwell.

2. Leith One, a male, was shot here on 23rd October.

Westlothian: Queensferry: The following were shot:

Oct. 14.- One, a male, very fine specimen.

Stirling and Perth: Kincardine on Forth: A flock of about twenty were observed here, for some days, about the beginning of October. They were very tame. One was shot, and preserved by Mr. M'Culloch, of Glasgow: this bird had remained some days after the others left, having been probably previously wounded. Several Skuas of other species were also observed here about the same time.

Berwickshire Berwick: Great numbers were observed here, and upwards of thirty were shot at Spittal point, immediately across the border. One was also shot at Newton, in the county, as recorded by Dr. Traquair in Proc. R. Phys. Soc., Edin., 1879-80. On the West Coast of Scotland I have only notices from one or two districts.

Inverness, insular: North Uist Island: One was shot here, about 26th October, by Mr. Macdonald, factor to Sir J. W. P. Campbell Orde.

Bute: Mr. A. M'Cunn, shipbuilder, Greenock, obtained five, and saw other three, in Kilchattan Bay, in this island, in October. Renfrew, Argyll, and Dumbarton: Considerable numbers appeared in the course of the autumn in the Clyde estuary. Mr. Clunie, naturalist, Greenock, passed about 14 through his hands, which had been killed at various points between Cardross, on the Clyde, and Dunoon. Numbers were seen in Gourock Bay, Dr. Leitch of that place having observed upwards of 20. These were in two flocks, one of eight and the other of twelve. They were accompanied by some common Skuas, which, however, kept a little apart from them. One of the Pomatorhine species was captured in a somewhat curious manner; the person who fired at it having missed, it rose and flew a couple of yards only, and then allowed itself to be taken by hand, having apparently been paralysed by fear. A few were observed even as late as 14th February.

Dumfries: This is the only other western county from which I have any information, one having been shot, early in October, in Hensol meadow, near the town of Dumfries.

Keeping, as usual, principally to the east coast, it is worthy of remark that fewer than usual were observed in Ireland, none having been seen by Mr. R. Warren on the north-west of that island during last season, where, as above observed, it is a usual autumn visitant. Doubtless this fact, as well as its appearance in so great numbers, is to be attributed to the same cause-namely,

the prevalence in October of severe and continued gales from the north-west, coupled with the occurrence, as noted by Mr. Stevenson, of large shoals of herrings and sprats at that period on the east

coast.

Their line of flight seems to indicate that migration takes place across the narrow neck of land between the Friths of Forth and Clyde, and, indeed, this is borne out by observations, at various times, of other species. The central counties of Scotland appear to form no barrier to the annual autumn migration of birds, which, striking our east coast, at localities north of the Frith of Forth, frequently find their way across to the Frith of Clyde.

It may be remarked as a curious fact, that the central tail feathers, which form one of the most characteristic features of the species, were, in the case of nearly all the specimens obtained in Scotland, much abraded and worn-a circumstance which seems difficult of explanation. This seems to have been previously observed by French naturalists, one of whom, M. Hardy, of Dieppe, affirms that the Pomatorhine Skua assumes in winter a plumage more or less resembling that of the young, that they then lose the central rectrices, which, if the moult is delayed, become a source of irritation to the bird, and in that case it breaks them over to obtain relief. Messrs. Degland and Gerbe, on the other hand, attribute the frequent occurrence of the feathers in a broken state, at this season, to abrasion by the ice before leaving their breeding haunts, or to the action of the gales, which drive the birds on the coast. Such great flights as the one under notice have, according to the last-mentioned authors, occasionally occurred on the northern coasts of France-notably in the month of October, 1834, when a great storm prevailed for several days in succession.

Before concluding this brief and imperfect record, one more fact in connection with the recent Skua flight may be mentioned, viz., the detection, for the first time, of several cases of melanism among the specimens, which were obtained, both in England and Scotland, two of which in the latter were shot at North Berwick on 31st October. This form, although known to occur in the allied species S. crepidatus, had not been previously well authenticated in that now under review. A notice of this, from the pen of Mr. Howard Saunders, appeared in the Field of January 17th, 1880.*

Reprinted in the Zoologist, 1880, pp. 90-97.

I may here add that since the reading of this paper, it has been stated in the Field of October 16th, 1880, by Mr. E. T. Booth of Brighton, into whose possession one of these dark-coloured birds fell, that it lived in confinement for upwards of five months, or until early in April last, when it had to be destroyed owing to swellings on its feet which caused it great apparent pain; and he further states the curious fact that by that time it had quite assumed a different plumage, the dark colour of the throat, breast, and under parts having changed to almost white, and light-coloured feathers were also showing themselves round the neck.

During the late autumn (1880) only one specimen, so far as I can learn, was obtained in Scotland, and that, so early as August 10, at North Berwick. Mr. T. H. Nelson, in the Zoologist (1880, p. 511), however, records the occurrence of a flight of several hundreds at Redcar, in Yorkshire, on 28th October, during the prevalence of a heavy gale from the north-east. They were flying in a westerly and north-westerly direction, but from the severity of the storin, no specimens were obtained, shooting being impossible. They were principally mature birds of the white-breasted variety, only three or four dark-plumaged specimens being amongst them.

Attention has been called by several writers in the Field during last autumn to the fact of the Pomatorhine Skua carrying its tail shut up like a fan when flying straight forward, swimming, or standing on the ground, so much so, that only one single feather was to be seen; and Mr. T. H. Nelson remarks further in the same journal that he had observed, in several instances, when he "had "shot a Skua, others came to the dead or wounded bird, and in "their twistings and turnings while swooping round, continually "opened and shut their tails much in the way which Terns do "when fishing over a shoal of Sprats."

Il-Barrallead and its Bird-Life. By Mr. GEORGE MACLACHLAN, formerly Lighthouse-keeper there; with Notes by Mr. JOHN A. HARVIE-BROWN, F.R.S.E.

INTRODUCTION.

Barra or Barray, according to one reading, means—the island of the point or extremity, from bar, a head or point, and ay or i, an island [v. Robertson's "Gaelic Topography," p. 211, and "New Stat. Acct.," vol. xiv., p. 198], and this appears to be the one usually accepted. But other authors, as early as the days of Martin,