74 TOUR IN SUTHERLANDSHIKK 



would have gladdened the eyes of any Devonshire or Cheshire 

 dairy-woman, as they did mine, a simple admirer as I am of 

 beauty in any living animal, from a milk-cow to a field- 

 mouse. 



There is an air of well-doing and comfort about the farms 

 on the Duke of Sutherland's property, which is delightful to 

 the passer by, and must be doubly so to the kind and liberal 

 landlord. Very striking too is the different appearance of 

 the tenantry on some neighbouring properties, where, to keep 

 up a forced and contemptible show, the proprietor rack-rents 

 his tenants to the very utmost pitch of endurance. 



I will endeavour to give, for the use of the naturalist, a list 

 of the wild birds of the county; which he must take, however, 

 exceptis excipiendis, as a list of an unscientific observer of 

 nature. 



To begin with the finest of our indigenous birds : 



1. The Golden Eagle is still to be found tolerably numerous, 

 but gradually decreasing, in the north and north-west part of 

 the county ; though likely to be soon extirpated, owing to 

 game-preserving and sheep-farming. To the latter the eagle 

 is far more destructive than to the former. 



2. The Cinereous or White-tailed Eagle is perhaps more 

 numerous than the Golden Eagle ; living, as it does, princi- 

 pally in the lofty cliffs of the sea coast, and feeding more on 

 dead fish and food found on the shore, it does not so often 

 fall in the way of the trapper or fox-hunter : it breeds, some- 

 times, amongst the inland mountains. The White-tailed 

 Eagle, though larger than the Golden, is not so handsome nor 

 finely formed and coloured a bird. All other varieties of the 

 eagle found in the Highlands are merely these birds in 

 different states of plumage, owing to sex or age, as there are 

 only these two distinct kinds of eagle in Britain. 



3. The Osprey is more rare and local than either kind of 

 eagle. Though not a very heavy bird, its breadth of wing 

 nearly equals that of the Golden Eagle. The habitat of the 

 Osprey is confined to the north-west part of the county, 

 where the numerous lochs, well supplied with trout, afford 

 this bird both refuge and food. The principal, if not the only 

 places in which it breeds, are Loch Assynt ; a loch two or 

 three miles north of the ferry of Kyleska ; a loch three miles 

 eastward of Scowrie ; two of the fresh-water lakes near Loch 

 Inchard, at the head of which is the inn of Khiconnich ; and, 



