ORIGINAL PREFACE BY MR ROBERT GRAY. 



The following pages contain the substance of numerous communica- 

 tions addressed to me by the late Henry Davenport Graham, Esq. 

 These were commenced in 1851, and were continued during an interval 

 of twenty years. Shortly before his death he agreed, at my suggestion, 

 to their publication, as a memorial of many pleasant years spent in 

 lona, and as a contribution to the ornithology of Scotland, to be dedi- 

 cated chiefly to those who, like himself, preferred seeking their infor- 

 mation in the open fields. Mr Graham was, in the strictest sense, a 

 field naturalist, as his glowing descriptions of his favourites and their 

 interesting haunts abundantly ,prove. No one, indeed, who has studied 

 the habits of birds can fail to appreciate what he has written. The 

 Notes contain so much descriptive power and genuine admiration of 

 Nature in all her varied aspects that it is impossible not to feel that 

 their author was a naturalist of rare abilities. 



Through the kindness of Mrs Graham, I have been permitted to 

 examine the collection of drawings executed by her husband during 

 his residence in lona. The bird portraits — about one hundred and 

 seventy in number, and all painted from life — are extremely charac- 

 teristic, and were at one time, we believe, intended for publication. 

 These are bound together in a volume, entitled, The Birds of lona : 

 All Shot upon that Sacred Island or in its Vicinity , and each drawing 

 is supplied with manuscript notes on the habits of the birds and the 

 localities they frequent, some of which I have made use of in these 

 pages. In a separate volume, containing upwards of two hundred and 

 fifty coloured sketches of sporting recollections, extending over a period 

 of four years, Mr Graham has left a most vivid pictorial history of his 



