THE BIRDS OF IONA AND MULL. 261 



forth the amazed exclamation of " By Jove ! I've killed them all !" The 

 more experienced hand only loads up as quickly as possible and stands 

 on the look-out. Half-a-minute more, and up pop the long black necks 

 in scattered clumps, some within shot and some beyond, which spread 

 their sable pinions and fly away, while one or more wounded birds rise 

 bleeding near the boat, and have to be secured, though not without a 

 struggle, for they are wonderfully tenacious of life, and a wounded 

 scart will often give a most arduous chase before receiving the coup 

 de grace. One does not like to leave a wounded bird, and sometimes 

 hunting a winged scart is very exciting — the cunning bird diving pur- 

 posely into broken water, doubling behind rocks, dodging round and 

 round them, but, worst of all, diving at the snap of the cap, so that 

 many shots are fired at him in vain. At last he may disappear alto- 

 gether in a mysterious manner, and never be seen again. This has 

 repeatedly happened to me, and sometimes in clear, open, perfectly 

 calm water, far from land, and with enough pair of sharp and practised 

 eyes to watch all round so that nothing could rise to the surface with- 

 out being detected. The conclusion at which I arrived was that the 

 despairing and exhausted creature, driven to the last extremity, perished 

 with the tangle or weed at the bottom in his death grasp, which he 

 holds to retain himself submerged when his own unaided exertions are 

 no longer capable of keeping himself under water out of reach of his 

 pursuers. In perfectly calm weather the scart may often be success- 

 fully chased by rowing, and heading him as he dives. In the evening 

 he is often so gorged as to be incapable of flying until he has emptied 

 his crop of its superfluous load, and the object then is to press him so hard 

 as not to give him time to disgorge, which such a proverbially greedy 

 creature as a cormorant is loth to do until it becomes a question of giving 

 up his life or giving up his supper. With a light breeze, it is best to sail 

 down the wind upon them, as it gives the boat most way, and as they 

 must rise against the wind, they are forced, if they rise, to fly towards 

 the boat. In winter, we usually get the scart by stalking them from 

 the rocks as they dive along the coast. At this time we get great 

 numbers of the young black cormorants of the first year. They are 

 distinguished from the green by their colour, which is dingy-black 

 above and brownish-grey beneath, and the eyes, which are hazel-brown. 

 The young green scarts are fine jet black, and have emerald green eyes. 

 As we get few adult black cormorants, we suppose that they do not 



S 



