VELVET DUCKS RABBITS FOXES. 181 



Cromarty and Ross-shire, at a distance in reality of twelve or 

 fifteen miles, but which, as the sun shines full upon them, 

 appear to be very much nearer, and all these are backed by 

 mountains of every form and outline, but of a uniform deep 

 blue tipped with white peaks. The sea as smooth as a 

 mirror except where some sea-fowl suddenly splashes down 

 into the water, making a few silvery circles, which soon 

 disappear. Every here and there is a small flock of the 

 long-tailed duck, diving and sporting in the sea, and uttering 

 their strange but musical cry as they chase each other, 

 swimming rapidly in small circles or taking short flights 

 close above the surface ; the whole flock dropping all at once 

 into the water as if shot, not alighting gradually like the 

 mallard and other ducks. 



The heavy but handsome velvet ducks ride quietly on the 

 sea in small companies, at the distance of about two hundred 

 yards from the shore, apparently keeping over some ridge of 

 sand or other feeding-ground, down to which they are 

 continually diving. These birds drift along with the tide till 

 it has carried them beyond the place where they feed ; then, 

 they rise, and fly back for some distance, looking more like 

 blackcocks than ducks, and dropping again into the water, 

 they continue their diving till the tide has drifted them 

 beyond the end of the feeding-ground; and this they do 

 again and again. 



The rabbits which inhabit these sand-hills are certainly 

 larger and heavier than those living in the more cultivated 

 country, though their food must consist almost entirely of 

 dry bent, with the variety of a little sea-weed and the furze 

 bushes, which they eat into numerous shapes, like footstools, 

 ottomans, &c. 



Foxes almost as tall and powerful as greyhounds frequent 

 this region ; and their fresh tracks are seen after every tide 

 close to the sea-shore, whither they have been in search of 

 cast-up fish, wounded wild fowl, and such like. 



I never pass over these sand-hills without endeavouring to 

 suggest to myself some new theory respecting their origin, 

 and what was the state of the country which they now cover 

 over. That beneath the accumulation of sand there has once 

 been a range of fertile fields cannot be doubted, as in 

 different places are seen furrows and other well-defined 

 traces of cultivated land ; yet no account exists of the 

 destruction of these fields by the inroad of the sand; 



