NOVEMBER, 1881. 95 



tendance Ay de mi! what good can they do to men or 

 gods at the bottom of Ardmucknish Bay ? 



My good friend, I'm afraid our foresight in laying in 

 such a stock of sparrow-hail for eventual rare feathered 

 visitors will not avail us if this weather continues. Here 

 has the glass gone down on Sunday morning as low as 

 ever we have seen it, and now all day the wind and the 

 rain are merrily sweeping over our devoted heads, lashing 

 the water into fury, and rendering our ferries impassable 

 once again. So we are pleased to think we have stolen 

 yesterday from amidst the waste of desert days, with its 

 wedge of frost driven in between the wet and storm, and 

 its moonlight blink through the dreary branches of the 

 desolate woods. How busy the squirrels were amid the 

 tree tops, and how well they showed among the bare 

 branches, with here a grey tail curled over a brown back, 

 and there a dark tail over a grey back, as they sit on the 

 stripped larches. For it is upon the larches they are 

 mostly to be found at present, and we could not think 

 what they could be doing upon them, until lately, when 

 we took shelter one rough day last week under the still 

 covered head of a neighbouring Scotch fir. ' From the 

 mosses under our feet, at present so rich and green, our 

 eyes wandered to the high over-arching trees, and there 

 at the end of a branch appeared a nest of a contour that 

 set our wits to work to decipher the builders. We 

 watched it long without success, when suddenly the 

 " nest " tilted over and dropped head first to the next 

 branch, there to continue in motion ere again assuming 

 the stationary position. The squirrel, for such it was, 

 had been intent upon its labours in the midst of the 

 severe rain, with its umbrella tail yielding such protection 

 as it might ; and our further observation proved that it 



