Mr Taylor on some Examples of Torrent Action. 43 



It is pleasant to note that the lively, dapper, and glossy 

 chough is as frequent among the sea-cliffs as in recent years, 

 and its merry, and not unmusical cry, is often heard at a 

 considerable distance from the shore. 



I shall now conclude with a notice of two birds, each 

 of a species sufficiently common, but whose plumage was 

 abnormal. 



The first was a rock pigeon, a bird which is abundant in 

 many parts of the island. Their feathering is singularly 

 uniform, considering how apt the domestic pigeon is to vary 

 in its plumage. I observed one rock pigeon, however, which 

 was of a uniform sooty black. 



The other bird I had a full opportunity of observing. Its 

 form showed it to be a barn owl, a bird with which I was 

 very familiar in my youth, but which I scarcely ever now 

 meet with. This individual was absolutely white all over, 

 not even a single tawny feather was to be seen. It is the 

 only instance of the barn owl I have observed in Islay. 



IV. Notes on some Examples of Torrent Action near Blair- 

 gowrie and Edinlurgh. By Andrew Taylor, Esq. 



(Read ]5tli January 1879.) 



I. In a former paper, I showed how such floods as those of 

 Dollar in 1877, the result of a set change of meteorologic 

 conditions, may even in modern times be powerful agents in 

 making or deforming the geology of the surface. I desire, in 

 continuation of the subject, to show how such agencies may 

 have accompanied glacial ones, as they do at present in the 

 Alps. Much confusion has arisen from attributing aU the 

 details of our superficial deposits entirely to ice action. The 

 eager advocacy of popular exponents of the power of the 

 glacier has caused Alpine observers to ask the question. 

 Could glaciers deposit boulder clays ? Here, as mostly 

 always, the truth seems to lie in a middle course. Observers 

 of glaciers have mostly confined themselves to measuring the 

 moraines of such places as the " Mer-de-Glace," to the 



