Birds. 9093 
landers say, “in the dim,” these sounds have a strange, one might 
almost say solemn, effect, The flight is performed with great swift- 
ness, although, to all appearance, rather laboriously ; indeed the poor 
birds seem to be always ready to remain for a night upon the lochs, 
or sometimes upon the quiet sheltered voes. Strange stories are often 
told of the supposed perfect order of their flight, and of the regular 
system of relief which is said to be observed among the leaders. My 
own experience is small, but, as far as I have been able to ascertain, 
the flock really does occasionally assume the precise form of a wedge, 
but far more frequently it has the appearance of a long irregular line. 
I never saw any other than a white, and therefore adult, bird taking 
the lead. Every now and then, sometimes twice or thrice in a minute, 
another passes to the front and becomes the leader, but this seems to 
be more a matter of fancy than of obedience to any fixed plan. 
Snow Buntings.—It would be difficult to imagine a scene more 
suggestive of famine and desolation than that presented by the hills 
above the Loch of Watley after a heavy fall of snow; nevertheless, 
when I had occasion to cross them one day early in the month, there, 
true to their name, were the hardy little snow buntings flitting from 
stone to stone, and twittering as merrily as though they were in the 
midst of plenty. The hard weather which accompanied that same fall 
of snow was severely felt by birds of many kinds. Wild ducks, golden- 
eyes, tufted ducks and pochards, all left the inland water and appeared 
upon the voe: the previous snow had long since driven the golden 
plovers to seek their food upon the shore, below high-water mark. 
Snipes.—Snipes, too, suffered considerably. On the 13th of March 
I saw about a dozen crowding round a small spring in front of the 
house. I know one well-authenticated instance in which seventeen 
out of a party thus assembled were killed at one shot. In Morris’s 
‘Birds’ an almost similar case is recorded, During a frost, snipe may 
constantly be found feeding in abundance along shore, and it is there- 
fore difficult to account for the fact that at such a time individuals are 
to be met with in a half-starved condition a few hundred yards inland, 
when a visit to the shore would enable them amply to supply their 
wants. Thus it is that one person upon the shore may shoot snipe in 
excellent condition, while another, a little inland, may upon that very 
day meet with none that are worth powder and shot. In hard weather 
I have several times seen snipe close under the windows, tapping the 
frozen ground with their bills in the vain endeavour to find a soft spot 
where the snow has been swept away. One greatly excited my com- 
passion by its miserable appearance, and I endeavoured to tempt it 
