THE BIRDS OF IONA AND MULL. 265 



song ' day and night till they are hatched. They are found in vast 

 numbers in the isle of Staffa and throughout the Hebrides." 



This is very correct, though I never heard the cooing noise by day, 

 though often in the evening ; it is rather a purring noise, broken by 

 an occasional click. When its nest is opened up, the bird is usually 

 found cowering a few inches away from its egg, and, when handled, 

 spurts up the oil clearer and more plenteous early in the season. 



THE FULMAR. 



Norwegian, Storm fogel. 



I never saw a live fulmar to my knowledge, but I have at different 

 times picked up three specimens very recently dead, quite fresh enough 

 to make drawings of, though too much damaged by knocking about 

 among the waves to be worth preserving as a skin. The strong, pecu- 

 liar smell alluded to in connection with the solan goose was as strong 

 as ever in these drifting waifs ; indeed, a single odd feather washed up 

 on the beach retains it strong enough to show what bird it belonged 

 to. The wings are very long and expansive, though they fold up in 

 such a manner as not to extend beyond the tip of the tail when they 

 are closed. 



THE COMMON TERN AND ARCTIC TERN. 



Norwegian, Fisk tarna, common tern. Rod nabbed tarna, Arctic tern. 

 The name of sea swallow is the most applicable to these elegant 

 ocean martlets, not only on account of their long, sharp-pointed wings 

 and forked tails, but because they are also the harbingers of spring to 

 the inhabitants of the coast, as the land swallow is to those of the fields 

 and groves ; and so sure as I hear their shrill, vixenish screams, and 

 see the long stroked flight of their sharp wings, so sure do I know 

 that the 12th of May has come or gone, for their arrival is punctual to 

 the day. I have no doubt that there are among the clouds of terns 

 which then arrive representatives of the many other less frequent 

 varieties, but I am obliged to acknowledge that I never took much 

 pains to search them out; indeed, when our tardy and short-lived 

 summer does arrive, we have so many occupations, amusements, and 

 engagements to be entered upon, that the fast-fleeting fine weather 

 months always glide by, leaving many things unperformed. The two 

 varieties which are abundant are the Arctic and the common tern, in 



