?2 WILD SPORTS OP THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP, vm. 



sun, has more the appearance of some Eastern or tropical bird 

 than any other of our sober northern finches. When engaged 

 in feeding, these birds are often so intent on their occupation that 

 they will allow a horsehair snare, attached to the end of a long 

 twig, to be slipped round their necks before they fly away. In 

 captivity they are very tame, but restless, and are constantly 

 tearing with their strong mandibles at the woodwork and wires 

 of their cage. 



Altogether the crossbill is a gay> lively bird, and, I hope, 

 likely to increase and become a regular inhabitant of this 

 country, as the numerous plantations of fir and larch which are 

 daily being laid out, afford them plenty of their favourite and 

 natural food. 



The eastern coast of Scotland, owing to its .proximity to 

 Sweden and Norway, and also to the great prevalence of easterly 

 winds, is often visited by foreign birds. Amongst these is that 

 splendid stranger the snowy owl, who occasionally is blown over 

 to our coast from his native fastnesses amongst the mountains and 

 forests of the north of Europe. Now and then one of these 

 birds is killed here, and I was told of one having been seen two 

 or three years back on part of the ground rented by me. He 

 was sitting on a high piece of muirland, and at a distance 

 looked, said my informant, " like a milestone." This bird was 

 pursued for some hours, but was not killed. The snowy owl 

 has been also seen, to the astonishment of the fisherman or bent- 

 puller, on the sand-hills, where he finds plenty of food amongst 

 the rabbits that abound there. One was winged in that district 

 a few years ago, and lived for some time in confinement. He 

 was a particularly fine old bird, with perfect plumage, and of a 

 great size. I am much inclined to think that the great-eared 

 owl, Strix bubo, is also occasionally a visitor to the wildest 

 parts of this district. A man described to me a large bird, 

 which he called an eagle. The bird was sitting on a fir-tree, 

 and his attention was called to it by the grey crows uttering 

 their cries of alarm and war. He went up to the tree, and close 

 above his head sat a great bird, with large staring yellow eyes, 

 as bright (so he expressed it) as two brass buttons. The man 

 stooped to pick up a stone or stick, and the bird dashed off the 

 tree into the recesses of the wood, and was not seen again. 1 



