414 NETHER LOCHABER. 



night after night in the same quarter of the heavens, and the 



absence of anything like accompanying storms or aerial disturbance, 



satisfied even them that it was not the Jir-chlis or "merry-dancers" 



as they used to know them. Let us assure our Celtic readers that 



an attempt on our part to explain the nature of the zodiacal light 



in Gaelic was no easy task ; and if the truth were known, we fear 



onr prelection quoad hoc was a sad failure. 



We have received the following note from " A Constant 



Eeader : " — 



" Nether Lochaber. 



" Sir — Would you kindly let us know, through the columns of 



the Inverness Courier, the proper name of the accompanying little 



bird, and what part of this country it is properly a native of. It 



is never seen in Eoss-shire but during very heavy snow, and then 



they fly about in large flocks, and disappear again as soon as the 



snow is gone. — I am, yours respectfully, 



" A Constant Eeader." 



Neatly packed in a couple of lucifer match-boxes ingeniously 

 conjoined, the bird reached us, and the locale of its being shot or 

 captured we can only approximately indicate by the fact that the 

 package bore the post-mark " Garve." There was no difficulty in 

 at once recognising the bird as the snow-fleck or snow bunting, the 

 Emheriza nivalis of Linna3us, a common enough bird in early 

 winter over the whole of Scotland. Although it has been known 

 to breed in Scotland, a few being found all the year round alonf 

 the summits of the Grampians, and other mountain ranges to the 

 north and north-west, it is probably a bird of considerably hicher 

 latitudes than ours ; visiting our shores as a migrant in October or 

 November, according as the winter is early and severe or otherwise, 

 and leaving us again in March or April. It is a hardy little bird, 

 of plain and rather sombre plumage, prettiest in the act of flight, 

 when the white on the edges and tips of the tail-feathers, and 



