THE BIRDS OF ION A AND MULL. 259 



bids them to tiy across the few intervening miles of dry land, and the 

 attempts of these pioneering parties at discovering a north-west sea 

 passage are futile, and so the great host must turn south again to 

 double the Mull of Cantyre. 1 I have reared the young puffins success- 

 fully ; one became very tame and attempted to follow me. He was 

 unmolested by cats or dogs when he waddled about, as they had a 

 proper respect for his tremendous bill. Before he entirely lust all his 

 clown, his appearance was, if possible, more comical, as a tuft adhered 

 to his head like a chancellor's wig. 



The Common Cormorant. 



Though pretty frequent, is so much less abundant than the green 

 species that I need do no more than just mention that the bird is well 

 known to us in every stage — the dingy-black small birds of the year, 

 and the great old birds, with the remarkable white patch on the thigh 

 and cheek, when they are known to us as leargs. 



The Green-crested Cormorant. 

 Gaelic, Scarbh (pronounced scarrav), whence the Scotch scart. Danish, Skarv. 

 Norwegian, Stor-skarf or great scart, for the black, and topp-scarf or all- 

 kriika, eel crow, for the green cormorant. 



The whole year round this is by far the most plentiful of all our 

 water-fowl, and giving us capital sport, whether we pursue him on the 

 water or stalk him from the land, and he is of very excellent value 

 for the lai'der. 



The green cormorants breed abundantly in all the great sea caves, 

 as well as in holes and ledges in the cliffs surrounding Staffa and the 

 stupendous headlands of Barg and Gribun. In fact, most islands or dis- 

 tricts have their na scarbh — scarfs cave — where the green cormorants 

 find a breeding place, and a habitual roosting place all the rest of the 

 year. Such haunts may best be described by an extract from my 

 friend Mr Keddie's Staffa and Iona, who visited the green cormorant's 

 caV e : — " Being excavated in the lower conglomerate rock, the sides of 



1 We consider this observation, and the accompanying remarks by Mr 

 Graham, to be most interesting from a migrational point of view, more especially 

 as having been written so many years before that subject was treated <>f by Herr 

 Weissman in The Contemporary Review ; studied by Herr Gatke in Heligoland : 

 or taken up by the Migrational Committee of the British Association. — Ed. 



