IN THE HIGHLANDS 261 



on our low grounds along the coast, and during frost 

 and snow swarming down to our shores at ebb-tide, they 

 now completely desert this country in September. 



I have known 350 Snipe shot in a season on a neigh- 

 bouring shooting only a few years ago. They bred also 

 in considerable numbers on my own ground, and gave me 

 a lot of sport. Now there is hardly a snipe to be seen 

 anywhere. The Rock Pigeons, which used to provide 

 such good practice for our guns, have also pretty well 

 disappeared. The Great Northern Diver is becoming 

 quite scarce, whereas it used to be common. The 

 Redthroat is also extinct here, and the Blackthroats 

 have ceased breeding on many a loch where they used to 

 nest every year regularly and without fail; but there are 

 still a few pairs about. 



The rapid decrease of the Lesser Black-backed Gull 

 is one of the most striking instances of a bird disap- 

 pearing. They were wont to breed in their thousands 

 in the islands of Loch Maree, and their eggs were quite 

 a source of food-supply in the hungry months of May 

 and June; now there are hardly any, and they get fewer 

 and fewer every year, in spite of the islands being now 

 watched and preserved. The Storm Petrel, which used 

 to breed in large numbers in a small island in this parish, 

 now no longer does so, and I never see a Common 

 Guillemot on the sea, though there are still plenty of 

 Razorbills, Puffins, and Black Guillemots about. 



No Nightjars have been seen for years here, though 

 they used in former times to fly about the gardens and 

 nest close to my house. The Wheatear, which was 

 formerly the commonest of all small birds on our moors, 



