CH. III. ANOTHER OSPREY'S NEST. 29 



CHAPTER III. 



Inn at Scowrie — Another Osprey's Nest — The old Ospreys ; 

 Eggs of — The River Laxford — Inn of Rhiconnieh — Drive to 

 Durness — Beauty of Scenery — Drive round Loch Emboli — 

 Glenmore — Loch Maddie — Crows — Gray Geese; time of 

 breeding — Old Nest of Osprey — Stag in the Loch — Fox- 

 hound — Black - throated Divers — Aultnaharrow — Loch 

 Laighal — Squall of Wind. 



We were loth to leave our comfortable hostel at 

 Scowrie, particularly without visiting the island 

 of Handa, a great breeding-place of sea-fowl ; but 

 being rather pressed for time, we got again under 

 weigh for Durness. Our landlord at Scowrie 

 having told us that he had heard that the osprey 

 was building on an island in a loch about a mile 

 from our road, we left the horse and boat under 

 charge of a bare-legged and bare-headed boy at 

 the place he mentioned (a small bridge about three 

 miles from Scowrie), and went to a point of rock, 

 from which we could command a view of the loch 

 in question. We immediately through a glass dis- 

 covered the nest of the osprey, built in exactly a 

 similar situation to the last ; that is, on the summit 

 of a rock about eight feet high, shaped like a trun- 

 cated cone, and standing exposed and alone in the 



