THE BIRDS OF IONA AND MULL, 215 



THE RED WING. 



The red wing visits us fitfully in winter during hard weather, and 

 shelter themselves among the little glens and hollows of the hills. 



THE SONG THRUSH. 



Gaelic, Sme6rach. Smeor is to anoint, to grease probably from the smoothness 



of its liquid notes. 



Except during the breeding season the thrush is abundant, but as 

 that period approaches the greater number disappear, though a few 

 pair remain in our treeless islands and make the best of any stunted 

 bush that may serve the purpose of building in, so that the mavis' 

 melodious pipe is by no means wanting on these rocky shores. I have 

 often heard him making St Columba's hoar old shrine ring with his 

 sweet notes, and be answered by a feathered comrade from the inland 

 rocks and knolls. 



THE BLACKBIRD. 

 Gadlc, Lon, or Lon dubh. 



This favourite is also a winter bird, though a few pair breed 

 wherever they can find a suitable spot ; but the greater number come to 

 us only to pick up a winter subsistence, and then not only collect about 

 the gardens, stackyards, and abodes of man, but single individuals start 

 up from behind the grey-lichened rocks on the moors, or dart with wild 

 screams down the little gullies, where they are screening themselves 

 from the gale and mist sweeping along the hillside. These seem much 

 wilder and shyer than those which hop so familiarly about our gardens. 1 



enthusiasm " spoken of in the text is apt sometimes to lead to quite unintentional 

 exaggerations ; or it may be a spirit of fun or mischief may intrude. This form 

 of pleasantry even crops up at times amongst educated persons, who have lived 

 long enough amidst the isles, to participate in the Celtic sense of humour, which 

 we need hardly demonstrate is not always understood by the Sassenach. ED. 



1 It may be remarked that the word Ion, according to Armstrong, means 

 both blackbird and elk, and in Campbell's Tales and Legends he tells us that the 

 old blind giant of the Fingalian times was always lamenting over the good old 

 times of his youth, when the thigh-bone of the blackbird (Ion) was bigger than 

 that of the red deer of these degenerate days (ftiadh}. 



The great Irish elk is supposed to have been still extant when the aboriginal 

 Briton hunted the wild bull, the bear, wolf, and beaver, so that the venerable 

 giant had good cause to regret the decline in size of his venison, if by Ion he 



