BIRD LIFE, ETC. 151 



What interest one could find in merely describing 

 the skins of these birds in his closet, it is somewhat 

 difficult to imagine ; nor is it obvious that the examina- 

 tion of their structure, without any reference to their 

 habits, is a much more rational occupation. The mere 

 closet-naturalist, and the mere anatomist, find little to 

 interest them in such a sight as this ; and the mere 

 field-naturalist, however delighted with it, cannot enjoy 

 that true pleasure which results from a knowledge of the 

 adaptation of means to ends, by which all these species 

 have their peculiar spheres of action determined. British 

 Birds, vol. i. pp. 301, 302. 



7. ON CLISHEIM IN A SNOW-STORM. 



Having in October 1817, as I find by one of my 

 note-books, left Borve in Harris, in company with the 

 Reverend Mr. Alexander Macleod, minister of the Forest 

 district, I crossed the sand ford and hills of Luskentir 

 to the little Bay of Kindibig, where we lodged with a 

 farmer, who next day ferried us over Loch Tarbert to a 

 place called Urga. We remained there for a night, and 

 then continued our journey, proceeding up a long, craggy, 

 and bleak valley, in which is a very dark-coloured lake, 

 famous for a goblin -beast which is seen upon it in summer 

 in the form of a black mass having three humps. The 

 wind was exceedingly keen, the hail came in great 

 showers, and the summits of the mountains were covered 

 with snow. I left the parson a little above Marig, a 



