422 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of Eed-breasted Mergansers that we noticed so frequently. The 

 Merganser's nest was placed in a dark grey cairn, the entrance to 

 which was " curtained " by a fine clump of lady-fern. We rather 

 rashly took one of the seven eggs, but the old hen sat on, and no 

 doubt her six little ones have long since haunted Dunvegan Loch. 

 I thought I saw a single Dunlin at the end of this isle, but did 

 not feel absolutely sure of its identification. Curlews often 

 visited the loch, though we could not ascertain that they bred on 

 our own hills. 



June 1st being my first and last free day, I determined to work 

 up all the Skinidin Isles ; but, though the Terns, Gulls, and 

 Ducks were fairly represented, the whelk-gatherers and their 

 hungry dogs had forestalled us, as the remains of nests sadly 

 proved. The ground -officer pointed out a ledge on which a pair 

 of Peregrines built a few years since. Unhappily one of the 

 pair was shot. A clump of white campion now grows in the 

 Falcon's nest, as if in mockery of former glory. We found a 

 Rock Pipit's nest with four eggs, and then I landed, and, walking 

 back to Loch Pooltiel, took another boat to the west side of 

 the isle. 



At a place called the " kilt," in Gaelic, owing to the pattern of 

 the basaltic columns, a number of Rock Doves and Starlings 

 were nesting, in company with Una grylle. We fancied the 

 latter had young in the crevices, and, as I longed to procure one 

 or two for the Zoological, to keep company with L. troile, which I 

 heard described in its youth at the Zoo as a " young Vulture," I 

 sent one of the gillies up an oar, but to no purpose. He could 

 not even reach C. livia, of which the young were hatched. Egg- 

 shells of C. livia and of the Starling were strewed on the rocks 

 below the nests. But the Guillemots sat sedately on the 

 ledges outside their nests ; now and again away one went, its 

 vermilion feet lighting up the black body colour and white epau- 

 lettes. 



On June 17th we returned, but the Doves could now fly fairly, 

 and our ladder proved too short to reach the holes of U. grylle. 

 Young Gulls had been out some days, and we felt that the Guille- 

 mots should be fit to take ; but the rock below their nests was 

 sheer and smooth, and we reluctantly deferred our violation of 

 the Birds' Act to the season of 1883. As we stood below the 

 cliff, admiring the old birds that " gulled " us so successfully, an 



