The Scottish Naturalist. 
45 
these western waters — a mixture of green and gold, like the most gorgeous 
shot-silk raiment, traversed by delicate bands of rich velvet — the beak is of 
gold, and its eyes living emeralds. He also wears a plume upon his head as 
a mark of nobility. This plea for the Scart reminds the author of a reply 
made by a worthy old friend who, for half a century, ruled the glens of Mull 
with his ramrod. " All God's works are lovely ; every beast and every bird 
is bonniest of its kind. 'Deed, sir, and the Hoodie Craw hersel' is a pratty, 
pratty beast, if it werena that she's just verwm." 
We confess at first we were somewhat at a loss to understand the energy 
displayed by Mr. Graham, at all times, in the pursuit of the gorgeously at- 
tired Scart. Could it be for the pure love of slaying so beautiful a thing ? 
The matter was made plain to us later in the chapter — " keep a sufficiently 
long time, skin off his jacket, and make him into soup. It requires a couple 
to make it good, and then I defy the Court of Common Council or a jury of 
Aldermen to detect the difference between it and the finest hare soup." A 
fact, no doubt, new to many, but one which the Editor, in a footnote, most 
cordially endorses. 
In 1852, Mr. Graham knew of three nests of the Chough in lona, one of 
these was placed near the top of the great Tower of St. Columba's venerable 
shrine ; also several other pairs nested, at this date, on the rocks of Mull. It 
is a matter of regret, as mentioned by Mr. Harvie-Brown, that this quaint and 
charming bird has now ceased to occupy any of the sites mentioned. Formerly 
the natives called it St. Columba's bird, which is suggestive of its once having 
bred about the Cathedral in considerable numbers, when its haunts were less 
disturbed by summer excursionists. 
The second half of the volume is taken up with a notice of the birds of lona 
and Mull, each species under a separate heading. We think the Editor has 
exercised a wise discretion in leaving Mr. Graham's notes intact, without any 
attempt to bring the list up to date — postponing all additions to the avi-faima 
to some future volume of the series, which will embrace a larger and more 
natural area. 
Mr. Graham was an artist of very considerable merit ; the sketches in this 
book, 74 in number, have been selected from his numerous drawings. 
Although they cannot be considered highly finished productions, they are 
truthful and often very humorous, evidently characteristic of the man, and 
add much interest to the descriptive text, illustrating various phases of bird- 
life, and the author's own personal adventures and wanderings by land and 
flood. 
The Birds of lona, as a contribution to Ornithological literature, must be 
accepted as the life-record of an enthusiastic naturalist, ever careless of his 
own personal risk when knowledge was to be acquired. Each page of the 
letters and journal is full of life and vigour. Mr. Robert Gray, in concluding 
the original preface, says, that in presenting this book he ever kept in view 
the difficulty, he might almost say impossibility, of adding to the journals of so 
gifted a writer, a word that would enhance their originality or freshness. 
We certainly require no higher testimony than this to the merits of the 
author. 
