ARRIVAL OF SHORE BIRDS. 247 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



JULY. 



Shore Birds ; arrival of — Foxes — Herriug, and Herring Fish- 

 ing ; Birds, &c. feeding on them — Herring Fishing in Suther- 

 land — A Sharper — Numbers of Flounders — Young Wild 

 Fowl — Roe ; habits of — Midges — Angling — Floods in the 

 Findhorn — Prophecy of a Woman — Escape of a Shepherd. 



About the second week of July the shore and sands 

 are enlivened by vast flocks, or rather clouds, of 

 dunlins, ring-dottrels, and other birds of the same 

 kind, who now, coming down from their scattered 

 breeding-places, collect in immense companies. 

 When the tide ebbs, all these birds are employed 

 in searching for the minute shell-fish and animal- 

 cula, on which they feed ; and vast indeed must be 

 the supply required. About the lochs and swamps 

 the young snipes and redshanks begin to fly, and 

 with the wild ducks afford plenty of shooting. 



The young sea-gulls, too, are numerous about 

 the bar and sandbanks, and are easily distinguished 

 from the old ones by their fine mottled brown 

 plumage. 



Great numbers of all these birds must be killed by 

 foxes, &c. ; for every day I observe their fresh tracks 



