8b TOUR IN SUTHEllLAND. CH. VI. 



crop of every bird. The rock-pigeon is a very 

 beautifully shaped little bird, rather smaller and 

 shorter than the common house pigeon, of which it 

 is plainly the original stock. They seem very rest- 

 less, seldom remaining long in one field, but con- 

 stantly rising and flitting away to some other feeding 

 ground, with an uncertain kind of flight ; but 

 when alarmed, or going straight home, they fly 

 with very great rapidity. They are easily tamed 

 when caught young. The eggs seem very diflicult 

 to get at ; nothing but a ladder will enable a per- 

 son to reach them, and it is almost impossible either 

 to procure such a ladder, or if procured, to carry it 

 to the caverns where they breed. 



There were two or three beautiful wild flowers 

 near Durness which I had not seen before. They 

 grew on the short grass that covers the summit of 

 the clifls. I picked up, while wandering about 

 there, some of the small land shells with yellow 

 and black stripes {Helix nonoj^alis), exactly similar 

 to those which, when a child, I used to find on the 

 South DoN^ais, near Brighton. The rocky headlands 

 jutting into the sea near Durness are very bold and 

 abrupt. While looking for rock-pigeons I saw a 

 few of the red-legged crow, or Cornish chough, 

 passing from rock to rock, and busily employed about 

 the broken stones searching for food. 



