128 NETHER LOCHABER. 



France, with the thought of the mere necessities of life and the re- 

 establishment of their exhausted energies, than with love or music, 

 or the gaiety and abandon so characteristic in ordinary seasons of 

 our feathered friends on the back of St. Valentine's Day. The 

 meridian sun, however, is now steadily climbing zenithwards, and 

 the day perceptibly lengthening apace, so that our wild birds, 

 rapidly gathering strength, and daily improving in tone and tune, 

 may, after all, arrive at their day of jollity and joyousness sooner 

 than we anticipated. We captured a beautiful Scarlet Emperor 

 butterfly a few days ago, as brisk and lively as possible, on a 

 window pane in Ardvulin Cottage, Ardgour. How beautiful, by 

 the way, and how suggestive of spring and vernal delights in a 

 land of plenitude and peace, is the following from, the Song of 

 Solomon : " For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; 

 the flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is 

 come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land ; the fig- 

 tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender 

 grapes give a good smell." 



Another animal besides the hedgehog has of recent years made 

 its appearance in Lochaber, though previously unknown, so far as 

 we are aware, anywhere in the West Highlands. The animal in 

 question is the water-rat, water-vole, or British beaver. The last 

 is, perhaps, its most appropriate name, for the animal is neither 

 kith nor kin to the rat, while very much in its economy and habits, 

 as well as in its corporeal structure, particularly its dentition, allies 

 it not remotely to the beaver tribe. In size, the water-vole is 

 more robust in body and larger in every way than the common 

 rat, with a more silken pile, and a bigger and brighter eye. It 

 frequents the banks of streams and ponds, feeding on the more 

 delicate aquatic plants, and on the bark and tender shoots of the 

 willow, alder, and such other shrubs as love to grow 

 " The quiet waters by." 



