WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



fortnight or more in this manner, they betake themselves 

 totheirbreeding^place.which is generallyeithersome rushy 

 and quiet pooler islandonsome mountain lake, where they 

 can breed and rear their young unmolested. There are sev- 

 eral lochs in this neighbourhood where they breed. One 

 they chiefly resort to is a small piece of water in the forest 

 of Darnaway, where they are not allowed to be annoyed or 

 disturbed during the time of incubation. In these places 

 their nests are placed as close as possible to each other,and 

 from the constant noise and flying backwards and forwards 

 of the birds, one would suppose that the greatest confusion 

 must prevail amongst their crowded commonwealth; but 

 every bird knows and attends to her own nest, and though 

 their cries sound angry and harsh, the greatest amity and 

 the strictest peacearepreserved.Thoughcrossing and jost- 

 ling each other in all directions, they never appear to quar- 

 rel or fiorht. On the contrary, the birds all unite and make 

 common cause against any enemy, man or beast, that ap- 

 proaches them, or whose presence seems to threaten dang- 

 er. I once took a boat to a mountain lake in Inverness- 

 shire, where thousands of these birds bred on some small 

 islands which dot the surface of the water. The gulls,though 

 not exactly attacking me, dashed unceasingly so close to 

 my head that I felt the wind of their wings, and I sometimes 

 really feared some one more venturous than the rest might 

 drive his bill into my eyes. They had probably never had 

 a visitor to their islands before. The shepherds, having a 

 kind of superstitious dread of the place, from its being sup- 

 posed to be haunted ground, never attempt to cross to the 

 islands by swimming or wading. The greater part of the 



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