PREFACE. r 



Many stars indeed have risen on the horizon of our ornitholo- 

 gical hemisphere, some to increase in brightness, others to twinkle 

 for a season and fade. At the present day there blaze in the south 

 enough to form a constellation whose mingling rays send over 

 the land light sufficient to enable the mousing owl to distinguish 

 its prey, and the benighted traveller to escape the perils of 

 crumbling crag, and quaking peat marsh. Mine too has ap- 

 peared amid the mists of Cairngorm, the haunt of the ptar- 

 migan and raven. There it glimmers in the north, now ob- 

 scured by the cold grey clouds that cling to the summits of the 

 mouldering cairns of red granite, bleached by the storms and 

 sunshine of six thousand years ; now sending a faint light 

 through a ragged break in the mists, now flaring with a 

 momentary effulgence, and anon fading into a feeble light. 

 Yes, there it is, struggling through the sullen vapours, twink- 

 ling, glimmering, glowing ; but its rays have been seen from the 

 plains, and some have hailed it from afar. Star of the north ! 

 will thy course be toward the zenith ? Art thou a vapour 

 kindled to shed a feeble light on the land, to shoot oif into an 

 eccentric path, and be at length quenched in the foul waters of 

 human scorn ? Surely thou wilt not ever struggle amidst tem- 

 pests and darkness, but a blast from the Braeriach will sweep 

 those sullen clouds away, and leave thy path clear in the 

 heavens. Shine on, little star, and as thou risest higher, let thy 

 rays be brighter, and let " the traveller bless thy gentle light !" 



But let us descend from the clouds, and cast our regards upon 

 the fields. " The winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the 

 flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is 

 come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." Many 

 summers have passed since I first listened to those " native 

 wood-notes wild ;" many happy days have I spent in tracing 

 the habits of those songsters of hill and vale ; and, although 

 with much anxiety I have set myself to the task of describing 

 them, yet that anxiety has been so mingled with hope that the 

 labour has been grateful. May the reader, comparing my 

 descriptions with the objects themselves, and going forth to 

 observe them anew, approve of what he finds consistent with 

 nature, correct what he discovers to be wrong, and give ex- 



