FRAGMENTS FROM THE SEASHORE. 261 



place, with his talons inextricably fixed in the 

 back of an unfortunate wild duck. 



Whilst hunting for birds' nests one day on 

 a tiny island at the mouth of a bay, I found a 

 rat's hole with a little hillock of limpet shells 

 outside, and mentioning the fact to my friend 

 Dr. Mackenzie, with whom I was staying at the 

 time, he informed me that he had once discovered 

 a rat in a strange trap on the same island. It had 

 been caught by the nose by a limpet, and held 

 down to the rock until the rising tide had drowned 

 it. He also told me that he had dissected several 

 limpet-fed rats living on this isle of fresh air 

 straight from the Atlantic, and found signs of 

 past tubercular trouble of a severe character in 

 nearly all of them. 



The unsophisticated Sassenach is very liable 

 to attribute certain characteristics and idiosyn- 

 crasies to Highland and Lowland Scotsmen alike, 

 and occasionally receives surprising proof of his 

 ignorance. If I had been asked whether I con- 

 sidered caution and reticence common features 

 of Scottish character up till last June, I should 

 have unhesitatingly answered, " Yes, certainly." 

 During that month, however, I learnt something 

 of the unwisdom of sweeping generalities. One 

 day, whilst in the Outer Hebrides, an aged 

 shepherd and a boy of some sixteen summers 

 voluntarily helped me to search for a bird's nest 



