THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 



Vol. VI.] AUGUST, 1882. [No. 08. 



A VISIT TO LOCH SWEN, ARGYLLSHIRE. 

 By T. M. Pike. 



Having been resident on the shores of this west country loch 

 from February to May last, it has occurred to me that a few 

 notes on the Ornithology of the district may be of interest to the 

 readers of ' The Zoologist,' more especially as little information 

 from this part of Scotland — during winter, at all events — appears 

 to have been published. 



Loch Swen is situated in Argyllshire, a little southward of 

 the western end of the Crinan Canal, running in from the Sound 

 of Jura, for a distance of about eight miles, in a tolerably broad 

 sheet of water ; it then breaks up into a number of heads, which 

 run up another two miles amongst the hills — a beautiful bit 

 of scenery. The narrow channels of the loch, winding round 

 well-wooded islands, form sheltered bays and lagoons which 

 the heaviest winter gales can scarcely ripple. At the mouth of 

 the loch, stretching well out across the Sound of Jura, are the 

 MacCormaig Isles — a number of rough craggy summits, as it 

 were, of hills, upheaved above the level of the Sound, varying in 

 size from the bare skerry hardly rising above the spring-tide 

 level (the nesting-place of Terns) to islands large enough to 

 pasture a few sheep in the hollows amongst the craigs. A well- 

 known haunt for birds are these islands, and tolerable security 

 awaits them here, as they practically reduce the Sound of Jura 

 to half its natural width, thus producing a very rapid tide, which 



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