Among the Bi)ds in Sutherland. 283


AMONG THE BIRDS IN SUTHERLAND.


By K. Sherbrooke.


I have been asked to write something for the Magazine,

and having no aviary experiences to relate, I thought a short

account of the birds I have seen here might be interesting.


My knowledge of birds is rather superficial, and I can

only write as a lover of them and not from a scientific point of

view. This house is only about a hundred yards from the sea,

not the open sea, but a little bay with a rocky island about the

middle, which can be reached on foot at low tide. This is the

home of a pair or two of Oyster Catchers, but I have not been

able to find their nests, which I think are there, somewhere

concealed amongst the rocks and tufts of thrift which grows

profusely all about the cliffs. Kittiwakes and Terns also spend

much time on these rocks, and a green Cormorant or two

are generally swimming about the bay, taking headlong dives

at short intervals. The last few days two or three Divers

have appeared, I think the Red-throated, but I have not got near

enough to be certain, and they fill the bay with their weird

noises, beginning with a mew as of a giant cat and finishing off

like an unearthly dog fight! On the beach a pair of Ring

Plovers dart along the sand and whistle monotonously. I found

a nest on an island a few miles off with four tin) 7 young ones

lying immovable like little mottled grey stones ; one of the party

did a photograph of them, but unluckily it was not a success.


Nearly all the birds about here are very tame, possibly

being in such a majority they feel safe, the human population

being exceedingly small ; in fact, one feels that the country

belongs to the birds and one is only here on sufferance. Where-

ever you go you are being watched, far from silently, as the

Gulls bark overhead, the Oyster-catchers scream about the rocks,

Wheatears chatter at you from the stones, and Twites and Pipits

flutter round in great agitation if you approach their nests. A

pair of Buzzards have nested and brought off their young a few

miles away, and we were lucky enough to see a Golden Eagle

soaring towards the mountain of Ouinaig a few days ago. Of

course the great feature of this coast is the island of Handa,

and parties are continually going off in boats to see the birds.



