150 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



6. — A Winter Bird Scene at the Mouth of 

 THE Almond. 



The tide is out, and on the muddy flat at the mouth 

 of the Almond you observe vast collections of rooks and 

 gulls. Small flocks of ducks are swimming about in the 

 stream, and groups of sandpipers are diligently probing 

 the mud along its edges. Far away, at a safe distance, 

 are many curlews and oyster-catchers. But see, scattered 

 all over the sand, running with a half-hopping motion, 

 and as they rise on wing displaying the white of their 

 wings and tail, the beautiful snow buntings. At the 

 edge of the water stand in a fixed and watchful posture 

 a pair of herons ; and, out at sea, are seen here and there 

 a few dark-coloured birds, which may be cormorants or 

 ducks. A flight of sandpipers is a beautiful sight ; there 

 they wheel around the distant point, and advance over 

 the margin of the water ; swiftly and silently they glide 

 along ; now, all inclining their bodies to one side, present 

 to view their under surface, glistening in the sunshine ; 

 again, bending to the other side, they have changed 

 their colour to dusky grey ; a shot is fired, and they 

 plunge with an abrupt turn, curve aside, ascend with a 

 ghding flight, and aU, uttering shrill cries, fly over the 

 stream to settle on the shore that stretches out towards 

 Barnbogle ruins. I have seen the sand fords of the 

 Hebrides in autumn, when those birds descend with their 

 broods from the moors, almost completely covered with 

 them and the golden plovers. 



