On Mountain and Loch. 75 



place of more southern types, and afford us a fine 

 series of ornithological comparisons of the deepest 

 interest. The naturalist familiar with bird-life in 

 the southern counties only, will, in investigating the 

 avifauna of mountain and loch, enter upon an entirely 

 novel series of avine phenomena. 



From the moorlands to the mountains and lochs 

 is in many localities a transition of an almost im- 

 perceptible character. In not a few cases the moors 

 terminate in mountain summits beyond the border- 

 land, where the two species of heather cease to 

 climb, or the most sturdy and tenacious ling that 

 clothes the hillsides for still another thousand feet or 

 more. In a similar manner the lochs are usually 

 situated in hollows among the hills, or penetrate in 

 winding fiords from the sea between towering high- 

 lands or heath-clothed wastes that at higher altitudes 

 terminate in bare and wind-swept mountain summits. 

 As with the avifauna of the moors and heaths we 

 shall find that the birds of the mountains are more 

 or less a shifting population. Indeed the similarity 

 is made even more complete by the fact that in both 

 regions moor and mountain we find but one se- 

 dentary species. Upon the moors we found the 

 practically resident Red Grouse; upon the mountains 

 we shall find the. Ptarmigan, a bird that clings to 

 the bleak summits throughout the year. In some 

 respects the Ptarmigan is a more interesting species 



