CHAPTER NINETEEN WILD GEESE 



fined, they always take to flight with the first flock of wild 

 geese that passes over the place during the migrating-sea- 

 son. Even when unable to fly, they evince a great desire 

 to take wing at this season, and are very restless for a few 

 weeks in spring and autumn. In a lonely and little-fre- 

 quented spot on the banks of Loch Shin, where the re- 

 mains of walls and short green herbage point out the site 

 of some former shealing or residence of cattle-herds, long 

 since gone to ruin, I have frequently found the wild goose 

 with her brood feeding on the fine grass that grows on 

 what was once the dwelling of man. The young birds do 

 not fly till after they are full grown; but are very active in 

 the water, swimming and diving with great quickness. 



March is a month full of interest to the observer of the 

 habits of birds, particularly of those that are migratory. 

 During the last week of February and the first week in 

 March thousands of pewits appear here: first a few strag- 

 glers arrive, but in the course of some days the shores of 

 the bay are literally alive with them. 



The black-headed gulls also arrive in great numbers. 

 This bird loses the black feathers on the head during the 

 winter, and at this season begins to resume them. I see 

 the birds with their heads of every degree of black and 

 white just now; in a fortnight their black cowl is complete. 

 In the evenings and at night time thousands of these birds 

 collect on the bay, and every one of them appears to be 

 chattering at once, so that the whole flock together make 

 a noise that drowns every other sound or cry for a con- 

 siderable distance round them. 



March 6tk. — I observe that the herons in the heronry 

 257 R 



