JULY. ARRIVAL OF SHORE BIRDS. 247 



CHAPTEB XVIII. 



JULY. 



Shore Birds ; arrival of — Foxes — Herring, and Herring -fish- 

 ing ; Birds, etc., feeding on them — Herring-fishing in Suther- 

 land — A Sharper — Numbers of Flounders — Young Wild- 

 fowl — Roe; habits of — Midges — Angling — Floods in the 

 Findhorn — Prophecy of a Woman — Escape of a Shepherd. 



About the second week of July the shore and sands 

 are enlivened by vast flocks, or rather clouds, of 

 dunlins, ring-dottrels, and other birds of the same 

 kind, who now, coming down from their scattered 

 breeding -places, collect in immense companies. 

 When the tide ebbs, all these birds are employed 

 in searching for the minute shell-fish and animal- 

 cula on which they feed; and vast indeed must be 

 the supply required. About the lochs and swamps 

 the young snipes and redshanks begin to fly, and 

 with the wild-ducks afford plenty of shooting. 



The young sea-gulls, too, are numerous about 

 the bar and sandbanks, and are easily distin- 

 guished from the old ones by their fine mottled 

 brown plumage. 



Great numbers of all these birds must be killed 

 by foxes, etc.; for every day I observe their fresh 



