l8o WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



herbage point out the site of some former sheah'ng or residence 

 of cattle-herds, long since gone to ruin, I have frequently found 

 the wild goose with her brood feeding on the fine grass that 

 grows on what was once the dwelling of man. The young birds 

 do not fly till after they are full grown, but are very active in 

 the water, swimming and diving with great quickness. 



March is a month full of interest to the observer of the 

 habits of birds, particularly of those that are tnigratory. During 

 the last week of February and the first week in March thousands 

 of pewits appear here : fir^t a few stragglers arrive, but in the 

 course of some days the shores of the bay are literally alive 

 with them. 



The black-headed gulls also arrive in great numbers. 

 This bird loses the black feathers on the head during the winter, 

 and at this season begins to resume them. I see the birds with 

 their heads of every degree of black and white just now ; in a 

 fortnight their black cowl is complete. In the evenings and at 

 night-time thousands of these birds collect on the bay, and every 

 one of them appears to be chattering at once, so that the whole 

 flock together make a noise that drowns every other sound or 

 cry for a considerable distance round them. 



March 6th. — I observe that the herons in the heronry on 

 the Findhorn ^ are now busily employed in sitting on their eggs, 

 the heron being one of the first birds to commence breeding in 

 this country. A more curious and interesting sight than the 

 Findhorn heronry I do hot know : from the top of the high 

 rocks on the east side of the river you look down into every 

 nest, the herons breeding on the opposite side of the river, which 

 is here very narrow. The cliffs and rocks are studded with 

 splendid pines and larch, and fringed with all the more lowly 

 but not less beautiful underwood which abounds in this country. 

 Conspicuous amongst these are the bird-cherry and mountain- 

 ash, the holly and the wild rose ; while the golden blossoms of 

 furze and broom enliven every crevice and corner in the rock. 

 Opposite to you is a wood of larch and oak, on the latter of 

 which trees are crowded a vast number of the nests of the heron. 

 The foliage and small branches of the oaks that they breed on 



1 For A. full account of this far-famed heronry at Darnaway, and the manner of the 

 birds deserting it owing to the persecution of crows and jackdaws, see Natural History 

 and Sport in Moray, p. S5 and notes. 



