412 The Birds of Nairn, [Sess. 



noisy evidence. I have even found the nest of this bird on 

 the top of the highest wall of Lochindorb Castle, and much 

 regret that I was unable to be present when the young family 

 was launched into the world. Many Passerine birds also, the 

 Eedstart, Wagtails, Dippers, and others, love tohaunt the courses 

 of the lonely mountain-burns where insect food is often abun- 

 dant, and they can enjoy that remoteness from the " madding 

 crowd " so essential to the happiness of some birds. The 

 hill-area is, however, specially the domain of the Eed Grouse, 

 the sole species confined to the British Isles. Not, however, 

 that elevation is absolutely indispensable to the existence even 

 of the Grouse. A few may be found at any time in the 

 heather round Lochloy, which is little above sea-level. 



And in this county, so rich in bird-life, what, it will be 

 asked, about the important order of Raptores — the Owls, 

 Hawks, and Eagles ? It is not exactly a case of " no snakes 

 in Iceland." Almost every British bird of prey has been, at 

 one time or other, recorded for the county, and some time I 

 hope to collect the evidence, which is at present much scat- 

 tered. But this paper is concerned chiefly with birds that 

 have come under my own observation, and during the last 

 three years I have come across so few Eaptores that they 

 hardly give me material for a paragraph. Occasionally I 

 startle a brown Owl in the woods, or perceive a Kestrel or 

 Sparrow-hawk on the wing; but the local gamekeeper has 

 done his work too well, and has very effectually suppressed 

 the feathered enemies of the grouse and partridge, — too 

 effectually, possibly, for his own purpose., 



As an avifaunal area, Nairn, if it has its advantages, has 

 also its natural limitations. Its superficies being inconsider- 

 able and its surface-geology moulded on moderate lines, this 

 county, though it offers abundantly to certain birds the 

 essential conveniences of life in a small way, has little attrac- 

 tion for birds that prefer life on a grand scale. It has hills, 

 but no mountains ; dunes, bluffs, and river-gorges, but no 

 shore cliffs like those on the Cromarty coast; woods and 

 plantations, but no extensive forests ; pools and shallow lochs, 

 but nothing that could be called a lake ; boglets and mosses 

 in plenty, but no extensive marsh. There are many British 

 birds, therefore, which we cannot hope to count among our 



