110 THE BIRDS OF ION A AND MULL. 



which they lose these handsome ornaments, that, as one of us 

 was stroking his hand along the back of the bird, we observed 

 several of these white spots drop off like flakes from the feathers 

 of which they formed a part. It was this peculiarity that made 

 me wish to forward this specimen, and I think I will yet preserve 

 the skin of what remains. 



XVI. 



ION A, 17th December 1852. 



I WILL begin by wishing you a merry Christmas and many happy 

 returns of this jovial season. Then I will go on to answer one 

 or two of the inquiries which you made in your last letters, 

 hitherto neglected by me. 



I have made very little progress in my observations as to the 

 Bridled Guillemot. I only discovered it here last year in the 

 spring, at which time I obtained two specimens. This summer 

 I was very little in the way of looking after any birds at all ; how- 

 ever, in autumn I shot " a this year's bird," in which the white 

 mark about the eye was distinctly marked. On every one of 

 these occasions they were procured along with a lot of Common 

 Guillemots, from which it was impossible to distinguish them 

 till actually taken into the boat. On procuring the first one, 

 being anxious to record the fact of its having been captured on 



