1891.
Sept. 4
(No 4)
Trip to Iona and Mull.
Scotland.
Oban. - caws like a Crow. The tone of the voice
is, however, much deeper than that of our
Crow.  
  The Cormorants seen to-day were mostly
perched on the tops of isolated ledges or rocky
pinnacles surrounded by water, sometimes in 
company with Gulls, often apart from any
other species of birds but  in companies of a
dozen or more of their own kind. Single
birds were also frequently seen swimming
and diving in the sea close in to the
rocks. They were shy of the steamer as a rule.
  I observed two schools of Porpoises belonging
to a large, black backed species very different
from the kind usually met with off our
coast as well as at sea, but not unlike
a large species which I have seen in the
bays and creeks of the coast of Georgia.
  At Oban I saw both  yesterday evening and this
morning a large flock of Gulls, chiefly L.
ridibundus, floating on the water in the
harbor within thirty yards of the sidewalk
which skirts the shore. They were so tame
as to pay but little attention to the
boats which were continually passing near them.
Every now and then a small number would 
rise and fly in over the land soaring about
the roofs of the houses like so many 
Pigeons.
  A Robin was singing early this morning in
Oban. I have not noticed House Sparrows