The Land of the Hills and the Glens 



in particular making an enormous bound in his excitement. 

 On reaching my destination the moon was commencing to 

 dip towards the horizon to the south, and I saw the unusual 

 phenomenon of a perfect lunar rainbow, every colour ghostly 

 but complete, spanning the northern sky. 



There are probably few people other than bird lovers 

 who have ever heard the song of the dipper or water ouzel ; 

 he is so exclusive in his singing, and chooses such an 

 unlooked-for season for his song. Yet his voice is of the 

 sweetest, and, indeed, is surpassed by few birds. The 

 dipper usually sings standing on a stone in the middle of 

 a rushing hill burn. Sometimes he sings on the wang also. 

 His notes are unlike those of any other bird. I have some- 

 times thought that his song a little resembled that of the 

 wren, but in it there is much more music and melody than 

 in that of the wee bird I have mentioned. The song is 

 commenced early in November, and there is a certain dipper 

 of my acquaintance which has been singing regularly during 

 the past month just where a hill burn empties itself into 

 a sea loch. I do not know whether w^ater ouzels can be reck- 

 oned as migratory in the true sense of the word, but there 

 is no doubt that they leave the uplands at the commencement 

 of winter, and remain at the estuaries of streams and rivers 

 and also along the margins of sea lochs during the cold 

 season. On such a loch one morning I saw more than half 

 a dozen of these birds feeding close together, their companions 

 being turnstones and redshanks. 



With the close of each nesting season a common gull 

 has for the past seven years taken up his quarters on the 

 lawn of a certain house in the Island of Mull. Every 

 season he leavjes his winter friends towards the end of 

 March when, I imagine, he returns to his nesting-grounds. 

 He can readily be identified, for he has only one leg, yet 

 he is surprisingly active despite this handicap. He is known 

 by his benefactors as "Gully," and to this name he readily 

 responds. Each morning the inmates of the house share 



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