ANOTHER OSPREy's NEST. 29 



CHAPTER III. 



Inn at Scowrie — Another Osprey's Nest — The old Ospreys ; 

 Eggs of — The River Laxford — Inn of Rhiconnich — Drive 

 to Durness — Beauty of Scenery — Drive round Loch Erriboll 

 — Glenmore — Loch Maddie — Crows — Grey Geese ; time 

 of breeding — Old Nest of Osprey — Stag in the Loch ■ — Fox- 

 hound — Black-throated Divers — • Aultuaharrow — Loch 

 Laighal — Squall of Wind. 



We were loth to leave our comfortable hostel 

 at Scowrie, particularly without visiting the island 

 of Handa, a great breeding-place of sea-fowl ; 

 but being rather pressed for time, we got again 

 under weigh for Durness. Our landlord at Scowrie 

 having told us that he had heard that the osprey 

 was building on an island in a loch about a mile 

 from our road, we left the horse and boat under 

 charge of a bare-legged and bare-headed boy, at 

 the place he mentioned (a small bridge about three 

 miles from Scowrie), and went to a point of rock, 

 from which we could command a view of the loch 

 in question. We immediately through a glass dis- 

 covered the nest of the osprey, built in exactly a 

 similar situation to the last ; that is, on the summit 

 of a rock about eight feet high, shaped like a trun- 

 cated cone, and standing exposed and alone in the 



