XXIV. 



KILMORY COTTAGE, LOCHGILPHEAD, 

 1st February 1863. 



THE locality in which I am now residing offers very little oppor- 

 tunity for observing anything very novel or remarkable in the 

 ornithological way. However, I will briefly sum up what little 

 experiences I have had since we last met (on paper). 



During the last two summers I have had a most valuable corres- 

 pondent in a young friend, Mr Colin M'Vean, 1 who is on Captain 

 Otters' surveying staff working on the outer islands. He was 

 my constant companion in my rambles about lona and Mull, an 

 island famous for its bygone school of Ollai Mullach wise men 

 of Mull. But all the wise men of Mull of the present age have 

 taken themselves to Canada or elsewhere, so the only college open 

 there now is that celebrated one where students find " tongues in 

 trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good 

 in everything," and certainly not least in the auspicious art of 

 observing the flight of birds. In this art we matriculated 

 together, and I place the most implicit reliance on the accuracy 

 of his observations. I had one letter written from St Kilda, 

 where he was for several days, but latterly he was camping out 

 on detached service in a lonesome bay in the Isle of Barra. His 

 descriptions here give one an impression of a kind of Paradise of 

 birds. Lochs studded with ducks and geese innocent of gun- 



1 Colin M'Vean whose personal friendship the present Editor of these Manu- 

 scripts enjoys son of the Rev. Dr M'Vean of lona; and who has also largely 

 assisted in reminiscences and Natural History Notes for this volume, as well as 

 illustrations contained in it. ED. 



