CHAPTER XXXIII 



SUMMER IN THE WESTERN ISLANDS 

 I. JUNE 



DURING the month of June the weather was almost uniformly 

 cold, and from midday on the ist till the 2ist of the month 

 the wind blew steadily from the north. For the first thirteen 

 days the shade temperature did not once reach 60 degrees, 

 and on the I2th the northerly wind reached gale force. For 

 fully ten days Ben Nevis was covered with an unbroken coat- 

 ing of fresh snow, an unusual event so late in the season. 



On June i the majority of the curlew had hatched out 

 their young and the oyster catchers were sitting hard. It is 

 interesting to notice how conservative this latter bird is in 

 the choice of a nesting-site, returning each season to the same 

 stretch of shingle and laying her eggs within a few feet of 

 the site occupied by her the previous year. On June 2 I saw 

 what seemed to be a pure white oyster catcher fly past, accom- 

 panied by its mate. On that day I watched for some time a 

 starling energetically searching for food amongst the sea- 

 weed. Her nest of youngsters was among some "scree" 

 up a very steep hill face, and I noticed that the bird on her 

 journeys back to the nest with food did not fly straight up 

 the hillside, but followed a zigzag course. 



On June 6 I again visited the peregrine's eyrie. The 

 young falcons were now about twenty-seven days old. Origin- 

 ally there were three eggs, but only two young were reared. 

 These, at the age of a month, were fine heavy birds, with 

 some of the white down still adhering to them. During the 

 time I was at the vicinity of the nest both parent birds kept 

 up a continuous screeching. Although there was no fresh 

 prey in the eyrie, the bones and mummified remains of many 

 N 193 



