228 THE BIRDS OF lONA AND MULL. 



and half rock, the birds usually selecting some slight eminence or 

 knoll, whence they keep calling and re-echoing each other's cry, so 

 that such favourite spots often get named after them, as Mona' chuich, 

 the cuckoo's moor ; Dun chuich at Inveraray, Penicuik, &c. 



The Goatsucker. 



Is not common, though I have heard them buzzing in the stunted 

 underwood which grows in patches among the rocks of West Mull, 

 and have taken its solitary egg lying on the bare ground. 



Swallows. 

 The martin is far more abundant than the chimney swallow, being 

 our common swallow, known as the Gohhlan gaoithe (go'lan gu'ie), the 

 little forked thing of the wind. The martin or martlet is a heraldic 

 figure represented without legs, and from the bird's supposed habit 

 of living in the air without ever touching the earth, is emblematic 

 of the Holy Spirit, and is the arms of the ancient abbey town of 

 Arundel. It is also the distinction given in heraldry to the fourth 

 son of a house, and is intended to intimate that he must depend on 

 himself to rise in the world. The Glasgow city arms contain both 

 the martlet and the fish holding a ring, the emblem of Christian 

 baptism, or of the second Person in the Holy Trinity. 



The Swift. 



Is not a common bird, though one pair have a nest in the tower 

 of lona Cathedral. 



I extract the following from a little book on ornithology, published 

 in 1807, as illustrating the idea people had of birds migrating sixty 

 years ago : — 



"They (the swallows) are very strong of wing, and will remain a 

 great while untired in the air. This makes their migration probable. 

 They pass, as is believed by some, to France, and thence they can by 

 easy journeys reach Gibraltar, whence their passage to Africa is very 

 short. Others, however, have collected facts, or made observations 

 which they believe establish their opinion that swallows do not 

 migrate, but remain torpid either under water, or in the hollows of 



