St. Conal. id 



of any given district e\'er published. He was a son of Provost 

 Richardson, Dumfries, and a very eminent son of tlie Queen of 

 the South. 



In reply to a question, Mr Service said he thought that, upon 

 the whole, the robbing of the gulls by the skuas was an acquired 

 habit. It was rather strange that even when the food of the 

 skuas was very plentiful they always preferred to pursue the terns 

 and gulls for the fish they had caught for themselves. In the 

 North Sea, sixty miles from the Norfolk coast, the fishers were 

 accompanied by great multitudes of gannets, gulls, and divers, 

 but the skuas never sought their own food. The skuas made 

 their nests in low country on an open and generally wet moor, 

 or in high country on a broad, dry patch of heathery waste, but 

 never on rocks. In Foula they nested at an elevation of about 

 1800 feet, and as they were exposed to all the cold winds and 

 often soaked in mist, their nests must be rather uncomfortable. 



St. Conal: The Patron Saint of Kirkconnell. By Mr W. 



M'MlLLAN. 



There is much difficulty in determining the identity of this 

 Saint, for the name Conal (being a form of the Celtic Comgall) 

 appears to have been quite common among the early Christian 

 saints of our land. One of St. Columba's companions bore this 

 name, as did also the contemporary King of Dalriada. It is not 

 easy, therefore, to discover among the many Comgals, Convalls, 

 Congels, and Connels who was the individual who preached in 

 Upper Nithsdale. In King's " Kalendar of the Scottish Saints " 

 the 18th of May is given as the Festival of Saint Convallus, first 

 Archdeacon of Glasgow, disciple to Saint Mungo under King 

 Eugenius IV. a.d. 612. As this saint is regarded by the Roman 

 Catholic Church as the patron saint of Upper Nithsdale, a few 

 particulars regarding him may be given. According to Cardinal 

 Moran's Irish Saints in Great Britain, St. Connel or Conval was 

 the son of an Irish chieftain who, leaving his fatherland, sailed 

 to the banks of the Clyde and enrolled himself among the clergy 

 of St. Mungo. He proved himself a devoted missioner, and soon 

 became one of the most illustrious of St. Mungo's followers. In 

 many mediaeval records he is styled Archdeacon of Glasgow, and 



