AUGUST, 1882. 213 



conditions. The result of this shot was a large cormorant 

 ( ' phalacrocorax carbo), still alive and not greatly injured. 

 Had we possessed facilities for a regular supply of fish in 

 our poorly-inhabited loch, we should have sought to keep 

 his lordship, for they will live and recover from most 

 severe wounds, and are by no means delicate in any way. 

 The eye is bold and piercing, and the head has a some- 

 what fierce and aquiline appearance. But there is 

 another shot, and a blue rock pigeon is dashing Lismore- 

 wards from the island. As it reaches the water edge it 

 decides not to attempt the crossing, but turning, makes 

 a valiant effort to regain the cliff whence it started. It 

 is wonderful that it did not fall at once, considering how 

 badly it was hit, and as it comes down with a sudden thud 

 it is clear no great suffering could have been endured, all 

 the nervous energy of the poor bird having been perforce 

 concentrated into that final effort. 



You would rather have had that blue hawk, my friend, 

 which has so often just escaped your gun. How it must 

 scoff at slinking humanity skirting the cliff on careful 

 feet, while it sweeps outward from an unexpected corner 

 and soars seawards, the monarch still of the little domain ! 

 Rarely is the Black Island without a pair of these ever 

 beautiful and now comparatively rare, peregrine falcons. 

 Here we are on the bare summit, the hard rock for a 

 yard protruding through the heath-clad hill top blown 

 bare, or worn bare ; for here is the gathering ground of 

 black-backed gull and other seafowl, where they sit and 

 devour their tidbits, and yet can keep an eye on the 

 hunting-grounds around for anything else that may turn 

 up. Around the summit are numberless bleached limbs 

 of small crabs, and these must surely have been borne 

 hither by the gulls ; although our friend mentions that 



