The Land of the Hills and the Glens 



as the Sound of Gunna. The birds are here throughout 

 the year, with the exception of a short season in the dead 

 of winter, and I suspect that from here they make their way 

 with their catches of herring and mackerel to their great nest- 

 ing-ground on Borreray, one of the St. Kilda islands, and 

 lying just under one hundred miles to the north-west of 

 Gunna Sound. A long flight this, but nothing exceptional 

 for a bird of so powerful a build as the solan. 



In the season of full summer there is little darkness in 

 the Land of Tiree. I have crossed at midnight that great 

 stretch of level land extending across the island from east 

 to west near its centre, and in the dusk have heard the 

 trilling cries of many curlew as they swept in from the sea. 

 From the swampy ground at such times come the curious 

 and pleasant cry of the dunlin and the harsh notes of the 

 corncrake. And before two o'clock (G.M.T.) the song 

 thrushes have been singing their loudest, perched perhaps on 

 the top of some wall, or on some storm-scarred gorse bush, 

 for on Tiree are no trees of any kind. And then the air would 

 be sweet with the music of countless larks, for I think that 

 here, this sweet songster is more plentiful than in any other 

 district that I know% although their numbers are thinned by 

 the fierce peregrine, and their full-grown young have been 

 borne off in my view by herring and black-backed gulls. 

 Then on the "reef " the tribe of the green plover are to be 

 found in their thousands, from early spring to midsummer, 

 and with their peevish cries there mingle the soft melodious 

 notes of the unobtrusive ringed plover, which also have 

 their home here. 



And when the strengthening sun has dispelled the early 

 morning mist, how fine a view is to be had away to the^ east, 

 where the hills of Mull stand in serried ranks ! King of 

 them all, Ben More attracts to himself many clouds so that 

 as often as not his summit is invisible even in fine summer 

 weather. 



Then, bearing north, Beinn Fada, or the Long Hill, 



i66 



