BRITISH BIRDS AND BIRD LOVERS. l8l 



abundance or scarcity in particular seasons, and the like, is a 

 more rational and satisfactory method of studying ornithology 

 than simply to hunt after rare specimens. It does not fall to 

 every one's lot to secure so rare a bird as once happened to a 

 friend who was shooting along the north-west coast of Caith- 

 ness. The day was bitterly cold and the snow falling fast when 

 he winged a wild duck and suddenly beheld what seemed an 

 animated mass of snow-flakes swoop down upon and carry it 

 off before his eyes. The second barrel was fired and brought 

 down a fine specimen of the snowy owl (Surma nyctea) still 

 clinging to the duck. The two were stuffed and set up together, 

 forming an interesting memento of a curious episode in an ordi- 

 nary day's shooting. Nor is it every ornithologist who can 

 boast the nonchalance of a writer to the Signet who dwelt hard 

 by the North Inch at Perth. His legal slumbers were disturbed 

 one wintry night by the rush of innumerable wings overhead. 

 Opening his window and seizing his gun he at once discharged 

 it into the darkness above him and placidly returned to his 

 couch. Next morning the results of his midnight sporting were 

 seen on drawing up the blind in a wild goose, which lay dead 

 in the little garden. One more nocturnal reminiscence must 

 end this part of our subject. Who that has dwelt near the East 

 Anglian seaboard can ever forget the charm of the wailing 

 plovers as they pass to their feeding-grounds during the dark- 

 ness of winter nights ? This melancholy sound harmonises 

 well with the hour and the solitude of the country. The ima- 

 ginative scholar calls to mind as he hears their weird notes the 

 thin ghosts which Homer so admirably describes wailing, as 

 they flitted through Hades, like so many bats, 



u; V on vuxripfte; (*>% a-vr^nv Sifftfiffioio 



us tti TiTiyvTxi up ytirotv ; 



or the disembodied spirits of the Celtic immigrants of Brittany, 



