CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XV. 



The Ring-Dove — A Pet Ring-Dove — Its Death — Shenstone — The Belone 

 Vulgaris or Gar-Fish — A Rat and a Kilmarnock Night-cap — 

 Extraordinary Roebuck's Head at Ardgour, . . ... . 79 



CHAPTER XVI. 



The " Annus Mirabilis " of Dryden — 1870 a more wonderful Year in its 

 way than 1666 — Winter — Number of Killed and Wounded in the 

 Franco-Prussian War — Battles of Langside, Tippermuir, Cappel — 

 Carrier Pigeons — The Velocity with which Birds fly, 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Signs of a severe Winter — The Little Auk or Auklet — The G-adwall — 

 Falcons being trained by the Prussians to intercept the Paris Carrier 

 Pigeons — Ballooning — The King of Prussia's Piety — John Forster — 

 Solar Eclipse of 22d December 1870 — The Grovernment and the 

 Eclipse — Large Solar Spots — Visible to the naked eye — Rev. Dr. 

 Gumming — November Meteors, ....... 94 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



November Rains : 1500 tons per Imperial Acre ! — Rainfall in Skye — 

 An old Gaelic Apologue^The Drover and his Minister — Grand 

 Stag's Head — Scott as a Poet — Mr. Gladstone and Scott — An old 

 Lullaby from the Gaelic, ........ 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Winter — Auroral Displays in the West Highlands always indicative of a 

 coming Storm — Corvus Oorax — Wonderful Ravens — Edgar AUan 

 Poe 106 



CHAPTER XX. 



Along the Shore after Birds — An Otter in pursuit of a Fish — Tame Otter 

 at Bridge of Tilt : Employed in Fishing — His hatred of all sorts of 

 Birds — " The Otter and Fox," a translation from the Gaelic, . 114 



