41 



LETTERS OF AN ORNITHOLOGIST 



( Continued from page 21 . ) 



Letter IV. 



lona, January, 1852. 



On the 9th. of this month, besides a most terrifie gale of wind, we 

 also had a very heavy fall of snow. I ventured out for a short time, in 

 hopes of meeting some ^'straggler." Numerous flocks of Snow Buntings, 

 (Plectrophanes nivalis,) were cowering among the stubbles, the males in 

 beautiful white plumage: this Banting is only a rare visitor to our island. 

 As I was returning home, my dog chased what I thought was a large Eat, 

 for some little distance over the snow; he brought it to me unhurt, and it 

 proved to be a Water-rail, (Eallus aquaticus,) the first I have seen here. 

 It has lived ever since in a box, feeding on chopped meat, which it will take 

 freely from the hand; indeed it is so tame that it has already become an item 

 in the family group, and when released from its box, it stalks about the 

 hearth-rug without making the least effort to escape. 



The Manx Shearwater, (Puffinus anglorumy) is common to these islands, 

 and appears in summer. At that time we frequently see them skimming 

 rapidly over the crests of the waves with a rapid. Swallow-like flight. They 

 are rarely seen to alight, and are so swift and restless, and only to be met 

 with on the open sea, that it is not easy to procure many specimens. On 

 the 12th. of May last year, however, a very calm day, as I was going to 

 Staffa with a party in a boat, we approached a number of very large flocks 

 of Shearwaters swimminj upon the water. They were very tame, and I 

 procured a considerable number. At their first appearance I mistook them 

 for the Common Guillemots which at that time of the year '^'^stud the seas." 

 By their arriving here in such large flocks at the time of migration, and 

 their being seen here during the whole summer, it is natural to suppose that 

 they breed in the neighbourhood, and in fact I got an egg at Staffa which, 

 I have no doubt, is one of theirs. It was in a hole in a grassy bank upon 

 the summit of one of the basaltic cliffs overhanging the sea. It was past 

 the breeJing-time, and a few fragments of shells of eggs that had been hatched 

 were strewed about the ground, and attracted our attention; and we discovered 

 one egg, (an addled one,) by itself in the hole. It was about the size of 

 a Pigeon's egg, white, and a perfect oval, being equally blunt at both ends. 

 The shell had the dead, unpolished appearance which characterizes the egg 

 of the Puffin, Stormy Petrel, and Cormorant. I searched this bank again 

 last season, but in all my egg-hunting tours I never met with another. 

 There were Puffins breeding in the neighbourhood, but their egg is as large 

 as a Common Hen's, egg, and of a rounder shape. I have no doubt the 

 Shearwater breeds at St. Kilda, and probably at many of the other Hebrides. 



I fell in with two specimens of the Bridled Guillemot, ( Uria lachrymans,) 

 last year, both early in the spring, when the Common Guillemots were 

 beginning to arrive. I shall keep a sharp look out for them at the same 



VOL. III. G 



