8 THE FERNS OF SUTHERLAND AND ROSS. 



congregate in vast numbers. In one of my late rambles I saw some Gulls 

 feeding with a flock of Rooks in a newly- ploughed-up field, and some sheep, 

 that ought to have been taken better care of, were obtaining their food, 

 covered six inches or more with snow, by scraping each one a bare place 

 on the ground with its feet, renewing their labour as often as occasion 

 required. One of them was highly displeased with a piece of thorn that 

 had got entangled in its long wool behind, and kept every now and then 

 darting off at full speed as if trying to get rid of its persecutor; sometimes 

 it stopped to take a side glance at the object of its alarm, and then with 

 a kick and a bound set off again with renewed vigour. 



Notwithstanding the intense cold the birds are not entirely silent; the 

 Robin sings early and late, and to-day one was indulging in its loudest 

 notes in the middle of a heavy snow-storm, doubtless in anticipation of 

 the warm sun's rays, which soon after broke through the clouds; now and 

 then also one may hear the "laugh" of the Green Woodpecker, and towards 

 evening the musical caw of the Rooks, as they return home from their 

 day's excursion, attracts attention. These birds are most regular in their 

 winter habits here; — from about September to the beginning of March they 

 congregate from all the neighbouring rookeries, and morning after morning 

 set out in a body for the low marshy lands of the Welland, and regale 

 till the evening, when as regularly they may be seen a little after dusk 

 returning in a long straggling line to the place of rendezvous — Wardley 

 Wood; those that arrive first invariably settle on the high ground over- 

 looking the wood, and when all are assembled, at some given signal, they 

 rise with one long caw, and settle for the night on the bare branches of 

 the tallest oaks. 



Uppingham, February 0>th., 1856. 



A PEEP AT THE 

 FERNS, ETC., OF SUTHERLAND AND ROSS. 



BY W. 



Relieved for a time from the duties of office, I resolved to avail 

 myself of a kind invitation to spend some days in Sutherland. I took 

 the Orion steamer at Banff to Burghead, and thence proceeded by another 

 boat to Little Ferry, near Dunrobin Castle. My course then lay along 

 Strathfleet to Rogart. Here a few days were spent very pleasantly. On 

 a rising ground behind the manse I met with Lycopodiura clavatum, and 

 among the broom the beautiful Cemiostoma spratifoliella. In a small loch 

 about two miles to the north of the manse grows in abundance Nymphoea 

 alba. 



