THE BIRDS OF IONA AND MULL. 2*71 



the shrill anthem, rising and falling to the deep, rumbling growl of the 

 surges in the cavern's profundity, which forms a fitting bass to such 

 wild psalmody of Nature's wildest children. 



The island of Jura (Duir-ey), so called by the Northmen from the 

 abundance of deer they found upon its wild hills and barren heaths, 

 still keeps up its repute as one of the best deer forests in Scotland ; 

 but the deerstalkers are sadly annoyed by vast colonies of myriads of 

 gulls, which monopolise a large tract as a breeding ground, by the 

 clamour which they make at sight of any human being, and so giving 

 the alarm to the wary quadrupeds. An exterminating warfare was 

 consequently carried on against them at one time, but without any 

 good result ; for while their numbers could not sensibly be affected, it 

 increased their vigilance and noise to such an extent that subsequently 

 different tactics were employed, and they were left undisturbed and 

 unmolested, so that they might become tamer and less liable to resent 

 intrusion when they found that it was not directed against themselves. 

 In a very old edition of The British Encyclopedia, this island is men- 

 tioned as being similarly colonised by hordes of skuas ; but these birds 

 have long quitted it, and is now but a sparse visitant to our seas. 1 



THE ARCTIC SKUA. 

 Norwegian, Labbe. 



This is not a very common bird around our inner islands, though it 

 may occasionally be seen scudding over the waves in pursuit of the gulls, 

 or quietly floating on the surface, looking like a nearly black gull. 

 The usual one seems to be Richardson's skua. Of the latter he reared 

 a young bird taken from a nest among a colony of these birds on 

 Stuala island, Uist. Our boatmen are well acquainted with the skua 

 under the name of fasgadair, which they usually mention with a sort 

 of contemptuous grin, perhaps from the popular notion which caused 

 Linn3us to name it the Larus jmrasitus, or dung-hunter, as it is called 

 by some old writers, who say " this foul and sordid bird pursues the 

 lesser gulls till they occasion them to moot through fear, when it 

 greedily devours the excrement before it reaches the water." 



Armstrong, however, in his Dictionary, mentions the fasgadair as 



1 But a few have since returned. ED. 



