356 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



are occasionally known to alight on Loch Langabhat, and also in 

 Harris in a lake of the same name. Benbecula and North Uist 

 are likewise frequented, but all these haunts are much inferior in 

 interest to Loch Bee. Sometimes a straggling pair remain behind 

 the main body, as if inclined to make Loch Bee their summer 

 quarters, but when they have had time to ponder over their 

 prospects, they wisely take their departure. Mr Harvie Brown, 

 writing from the Outer Hebrides on 17th May, 1870, informed 

 me that two wild swans were seen about a week previously on a 

 lake in the west side of North Uist.* In the Inner Hebrides the 

 Hooper occasionally visits Skye, lona, and Mull, and is also found 

 in small flocks every winter in Islay, where it is much more 

 numerous in hard weather. One which was caught and pinioned, 

 has lived on Loch Gruirm in that island for thirty years, but is said 

 to be still rather wild. On the mainland flocks occur regularly in 

 various districts from Sutherlandshire to Wigtownshire. Numbers 

 appear in Loch Lomond, especially in severe winters, and it is 

 still more common in Loch whin och, in Renfrewshire, where about 

 fifty tame swans are kept. In the summer months, the sight of 

 this splendid fleet proudly sailing on the blue expanse of water is 

 very striking, and, even in winter when the loch is clear of ice, 

 they may be seen at all hours feeding in the shallow parts. 

 Attracted by these birds, the wild swans often alight in parties of 

 six or eight, and are soon recognised by their alertness and inferior 

 size, besides the darker colour of their plumage, many of them 

 being young birds. Several were shot there in January and 

 February, 1871, and Mr Harvie Brown has informed me that 

 three or four were observed on the Forth, in Stirlingshire, about 

 the same time. 



In other parts of Scotland the Wild Swan is frequently met with, 

 but its appearance is, in a great measure, regulated by the state of 

 the weather. In mild winters it is not often observed, but 

 during seasons of unusual severity it is still a marked object 

 in our principal lochs and estuaries which are frequented by other 



* A few years ago, a wounded swan remained throughout the summer on Loch 

 Bee, and attracted much attention by the loud and melancholy cries to which 

 it gave utterance. An old crone, in telling me about this bird, reiterated her 

 conviction that it was the ghost of her grandmother, who had met with a 

 violent death about sixty years previously. It was a bold image, though I 

 cannot but think that a Hack swan would have been more appropriate. 



