Spring in the Western Highlands 



26th, the young birds did not fully emerge till three days 

 later. In a country where grey crows and gulls abound 

 every bird has to keep a watchful eye on her eggs, and 

 the parent curlews in this case attacked with ferocity any 

 winged marauder venturing in the neighbourhood of their 

 nest. 



Oyster catchers, most regular birds in their nesting, had 

 eggs about May 10, which was, I should say, from two to 

 three days later than the previous year. One nest I found 

 contained two eggs which were quite remarkable. They were 

 not more than one-half the usual size, and indeed closely 

 resembled the eggs of the common tern, except that the 

 shells were rougher and thicker. Unfortunately the eggs 

 disappeared they were, I think, eaten by gulls so It was 

 not possible to observe what manner of chick emerged from 

 such abnormal eggs. Another oyster catcher had an un- 

 pleasant experience. Last season she laid her eggs and 

 hatched her young in a field of young oats fringing a sea 

 loch. This year the field was under potatoes, so I was 

 surprised to see that she had again chosen it as a nesting- 

 site and had laid her eggs on the crown of a furrow. The 

 field shortly afterwards was harrowed, and in the process 

 one of the eggs was broken and the other two thrown to the 

 bottom of the furrow. It says much for the devotion of the 

 parent bird that she continued to brood on the couple of 

 mud-encrusted eggs in their new situation, though she made 

 no effort to make a nest around them. 



Terns were, I think, rather later than usual in arriving. 

 As late as May 15 I passed an island which is a specially 

 favoured nesting-site, and not a single tern had arrived. It 

 was not until May 19 that I saw the first birds. The night- 

 jar, perhaps the last of our summer migrants to arrive, was 

 heard for the first time on the evening of May 24, and the 

 following evening I had an excellent view of the bird as 

 he sat on one of the fence posts just outside the window, utter- 

 ing his low and curious call note. This may be likened 

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