288 



THE BIRDS OF AKRAN. 



122. The island of Arran, constituting the larger portion 

 of the shire of Bute,* contains many elements of a highly 

 attractive nature to some of the more important birds that 

 frequent the western counties of Scotland. From its diversi- 

 fied scenery, embracing picturesque glens and lofty mountains, 

 natural caves and moorland wastes it gives ample shelter 

 to many species that are daily becoming scarcer in places 

 where the undue preservation of game has so much altered 

 the bird-life of our northern lands. With the exception of 

 the island of Skye, there is perhaps no part of the Western 

 Hebrides more remarkable for the sublimity of its bird-haunts 

 than Arran. The towering peaks of Goatfell and Ben Ghnuis 

 homes of the eagle and ptarmigan can nowhere be ex- 

 ceeded for grandeur and magnificence; yet, wild and savage 

 as they appear, they are not more impressive than the great 

 and silent glens with which they are intersected. Of these, 

 Glen Sannox, Glen Rosa, Glen Shirag, and Glen Catacol, 

 being the chief, are at once distinguished for beauty and sub- 

 limity. Some of the naked precipices enclosed in their 

 wildest recesses are inhabited by ravens and peregrines; and 

 in those places where the valleys expand into a romantic 

 softness, and are enriched by the copsewood which clothes 

 their gentle slopes, the smaller insessorial birds enliven every 

 hollow, and fill the air on summer evenings with their 

 music. Again, 



" Over the brow of the ferny hill, 

 Over the moorland, purple dyed," 



The county of Bute consists of seven islands, viz., Bute, Arran, 

 Great Cumbrae, Little Cumbrae, Inchmarnock, Holy Island, and 

 Pladda, 



