128 FIELD NOTES FOR THE YEAR. 



Our brent goose seems to eat scarcely anything but grass, 

 and any snails or worms it may find in the field. He is a far 

 more graceful bird on land than the pochard, for quick and 

 active as the latter is in the water, his great fiat feet, placed 

 far behind, are of little service to him in walking. 



The eye of the pochard is of a most wonderfully clear 

 bright-red colour, something between crimson and scarlet, 

 and is quite unlike that of any other water-fowl that 1 am 

 acquainted with. 



April, if the weather is fine and genial enough to bring out 

 many flies, is about the best month for trout-fishing on the 

 Findhorn. Large river-trout, which are seldom seen at any 

 other time of the year, make their appearance in this month 

 and rise freely ; the sea-trout fishing, lower down near the 

 sea, is equally good, the fish being numerous and eager to 

 take the fly. 



C H A P T E K XVI. 



MAY. 



Nests of Birds Cross-bills, &c. --Lateness of Season Bean-Geese Partridge's 

 Nest Northern Diver Coot's Nest Teal and her Young Wren's Nest 

 Badgers ; cunning of ; anecdote of Aurora Borealis ; sound made by. 



IN this region May is invariably ushered in by the croak of 

 the landrail. Generally this bird is heard on the 1st. If, 

 however, the grass and wheat fields are backward, it is not 

 heard till the 2nd or 3rd, but never later than the 3rd. 



On the 1st of May we found in an old crow's nest, placed 

 in a tall Scotch fir-tree, the nest of a horned owl, with one 

 young bird, half grown, and a rotten egg. The owls hoot 

 now very much, and though none breed very near the house 

 I hear them every night in the ash-trees. 



The young thrushes, blackbirds, robins, and hedge-sparrows 

 will soon be hatched ; but the green-finches, chaffinches, &c., 

 although their nests are nearly completed, have not yet laid 

 any eggs ; the insectivorous birds being the first to build. 



Swallows, martins, swifts, and wheatears become numerous 

 about the first week in May, and the landrail's call is heard 

 from every patch of clover. The movements of the landrail 

 are very peculiar and amusing : at one moment threading the 

 clover with its head bent to the ground, and looking more like 

 a weasel than a bird ; the next, standing perfectly erect, and 



