Winter Birds on the Shores of the Minch 



called. These graceful birds do not nest with us their 

 home is in Iceland and the north of Norway but any win- 

 ter's day they may be seen diving energetically for food 

 at a short distance from the shore, and I think they are 

 more assiduous in their diving than even the cormorant. 

 As he submerges the drake throws up the long pheasant- 

 like feathers of his tail so that they are very conspicuous, 

 and, indeed, when flying he always reminds me the re- 

 semblance is more marked in the drake than in the duck 

 of a pheasant. His flight is none too strong, and his long 

 tail feathers droop behind him as though they were some- 

 thing of a burden. 



In their stay under water the long-tailed duck are more 

 or less regular. I have often timed them, and the period of 

 submersion has usually been thirty-five seconds or there- 

 abouts. 



I do not know if they are paired throughout the winter : 

 certainly the majority of those I have watched during the 

 days of early January have been mated. Their cry is a 

 low whistling, thought by fishermen to resemble the words 

 "coal an' candle licht," whence it is that in certain parts of 

 the north and eastern coasts the bird goes by this name. 



Purple sandpipers frequent the shores of the Minch until, 

 in April and May, they leave for their northern nesting- 

 grounds. No bird is more confiding; indeed, I have often 

 walked up to within a yard or tw r o of them as they were 

 intent on their feeding. Unlike most "w r aders " they do not 

 keep together in large flocks. A company of a dozen even 

 is a rare thing to see, and usually the birds are met with in 

 twos and threes. Their food seems to consist largely of 

 barnacles, and they are adepts at balancing themselves on 

 wet and sloping rocks, standing, in comical attitudes with 

 legs far apart. They rarely swim, but I have once or twice 

 seen one deliberately swim across a narrow channel of deep 

 water. The purple sandpiper is not difficult to identify. Its 

 legs are yellow, of quite a different colour to those of the 



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