. The birds of Iona & Mull . ther hole at the back of the Shieldrakes nest, and discoveredwithin it a Shearwater (Pujftnus anglorum) sitting upon her lost all these owing to my not being at home. On the 6 th of this month, when on a visit to Staffa, we shot anumber of Guillemots and Eazor-bills; they were mostly birds ofthe year, and among them was one young Bridled Guillemot (Urialachrymans); though in immature plumage, the white line roundthe eye was quite distinctly marked, but the bird was too muchinjured to be preserved. We took away a pair of young RockDoves (Columba lima) from Soa
. The birds of Iona & Mull . ther hole at the back of the Shieldrakes nest, and discoveredwithin it a Shearwater (Pujftnus anglorum) sitting upon her lost all these owing to my not being at home. On the 6 th of this month, when on a visit to Staffa, we shot anumber of Guillemots and Eazor-bills; they were mostly birds ofthe year, and among them was one young Bridled Guillemot (Urialachrymans); though in immature plumage, the white line roundthe eye was quite distinctly marked, but the bird was too muchinjured to be preserved. We took away a pair of young RockDoves (Columba lima) from Soay, intending to rear them by hand,as we have often done before ; but it happened that a pair of tamePigeons had just had their young taken by a cat, and of their LETTER XI. 93 own accord the bereaved parents immediately took to the twoorphans, and brought them up. By the last post I forwarded a pair of young Petrels (Thalassi-droma pelagica) ; they were taken from Soay on the 8th, and werethen about a fortnight old, but very. jb**^* little advanced, being coveredwith a profusion of down, and their legs and wings quite old birds were all absent; though we searched every hole,and dug one hole out to ascertain that they were not skulking atthe extremity of their burrows, we did not succeed in finding two young captives were placed in a little box, and fed with 94 THE BIRDS OF IONA AND MULL. very small bits of fish, crammed down on the end of a little stick ;they took their food in this manner with great reluctance, but Isoon discovered that they had a great partiality for cod-liver oil,and would suck a stick dipped in oil very willingly, clatteringtheir beaks and shaking their heads with evident satisfaction. Ishould conclude from this that the Petrels feed their young withthe oil, which they have the power of ejecting from their bills. The young birds made very rapid progress, and soon became tired of confinement, and were only pleased when allowed to walk abo
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirdsscotlandhebride
