462 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



although the grey scarred crests rise on every hand 

 and are reflected in the pure water beneath, the 

 lower slopes of the hills and the margin of the loch 

 itself are clothed with soft woods and the greenest 

 vegetation. At the side of the still water we find 

 the desolation of the higher ground merging into 

 the gentlest pastoral beauty, and from a single 

 standpoint many birds may be seen whose habits 

 and associations are usually considered to be far 

 apart. In the green dells, amidst the leafy boughs 

 and springing flowers, we hear the Willow Wren 

 and the smaller warblers singing, whilst from the 

 bare screes above come the croak of the Raven, 

 and the scream of the Golden Eagle or Peregrine. 



Many of the birds which St. John described as 

 belonging to this region in 1848 are still to be 

 found. The Ospreys which nested for so many 

 years on the ruined castle which still stands on the 

 peninsula have, of course, entirely disappeared, 

 but the Red-necked Phalarope, the Greenshank and 

 the Divers, as well as many of the larger birds 

 of prey, still haunt the old creeks and islets or the 

 rocky fastnesses of the cliffs. 



One bird constantly hovering around the loch 

 is the Common Gull. About the small boulders 

 and stony points which project into the water, the 

 eye is sometimes attracted to a rough mass of sticks 

 and weed which might well be the debris left by a 

 falling tide. But as one draws near, the birds 

 hover and scream so loudly overhead, that one per- 

 force examines the tangle more narrowly. Here 

 in the deep hollow^ the two or three eggs, olive- 

 brown and spotted and blurred with black, are laid, 



