4IO The Birds of Nairn, [Sess. 



pure sky over a patch of grubby pasture. By far the most 

 common of the Pipits in this as in adjacent counties is the 

 Meadow Pipit, a welcome presence which greets you in the 

 most remote solitudes by shore or hill. The Starling is 

 probably more plentiful at the present time than it has ever 

 been. Besides the normal resident quota, I have seen vast 

 migrations of the birds pass over the county in the late winter 

 months, when they roost in the plantations for a few nights 

 and then disappear. The Crows are represented by the Eook, 

 the Jackdaw, the Hooded or Carrion Crow, and the Magpie. 

 I add the Magpie to the list on the strength of having seen 

 one in the county within the last three years, though I am 

 afraid the attention of gamekeepers has brought this beautiful 

 and interesting species, once so numerous, to the vanishing 

 point. The curious thing is that the Hooded Crow, which is 

 quite as troublesome a raider as the Magpie, seems to hold its 

 own, and is quite as numerous as it deserves to be. I believe 

 the Jackdaw is more plentiful than it was years ago, when it 

 confined itself to such congenial haunts as the decayed ashes 

 round Cawdor Castle and the ruined walls of Inchoch Castle. 

 Now it has established itself in the town of Nairn, attracted 

 no doubt by the recent erection of comfortable church 

 steeples. The Eook, the fourth member of the thieving 

 fraternity, unlike the Magpie, shows no decreasing birth-rate. 

 Several thriving rookeries exist near the town, with a tend- 

 ency, I fancy, to start new colonies. The Swift probably 

 gyrates over the town of Nairn as plentifully to-day as it did 

 in the time of Macbeth, though I do not suppose this com- 

 munity numbers more than a dozen pairs. I believe I have 

 myself seen, close to the Newton Golf-Links, its near relative, 

 the Goatsucker, though, as I did not subsequently hear its 

 " chirr," I cannot be sure of this. The bird is, however, a 

 sufficiently well-authenticated summer visitor to the county. 

 Mr Bain pronounces it plentiful, but I cannot confirm this 

 from my own observation. I fear the Cuckoo is not the bird 

 it was when I was young. I can remember when the summer 

 woods of the county were resonant with the notes of this bird, 

 each challenging the other to a vocal competition ; but I 

 could count the times I have heard its note within the last 

 three years. As the Stockdove represents the pigeons on the 



