INNIS BIGGLE. 



which, rising in an alarm at our unexpected appearance, made 

 the rocks ring with their loud and piercing whistle. Skirting 

 the shore of Innis Biggie, we disturbed an osprey or sea-eagle,* 

 in the act of feeding on a bird. He rose leisurely, and, light- 

 ing on a rock, waited till we passed, and then returned to his 



prey. We ran sufficiently close to the shore to observe the 



and eight varieties, spread over various parts of the world, but nowhere 

 very numerous. 



Buffon describes fifteen species and varieties of the curlew, and Latham 

 ten, only two or three of which are British birds. They feed upon 

 worms, which they pick up on the surface, or with their bills dig from the 

 soft earth : on these they depend for their principal support ; but they 

 also devour the various kinds of insects which swarm in the mud and 

 in the wet boggy grounds, where these birds chiefly take up their 

 abode. 



" Eagles are well knowne to breed here, but neither so bigge, nor 

 so many, as books tell. Cambrensis reporteth of his own knowledge, 

 and I heare it averred by credible persons, that barnacles, thousands 

 at once, are noted along the shoares to hang by the beakes about the 



