GEESE 205 



in the Outer Hebrides remind me of a curious 

 effect which I noted in connection with the call- 

 note of this bird in these quiet solitudes. I had 

 reached South Uist, and taken up my quarters 

 under the hospitable roof of Mr. Birnie, at 

 Grogarry . . . and in the stillness of the Sabbath 

 morning following my arrival was aroused from 

 sleep by the cries of the grey-lags as they flew 

 past the house. Their voices, softened by dis- 

 tance, sounded not unpleasantly, reminding me 

 of the clanging of church bells in the heart of a 

 large town." 



It is a fact, I think, that to many minds the 

 mere wildness represented by the voice of a great 

 wild bird in his lonely haunts is so grateful, 

 that the sound itself, whatever its quaUty may 

 be, delights, and is more than the most beautiful 

 music. A certain distinguished man of letters 

 and Church dignitary was once asked, a friend 

 tells me, why he lived away from society, buried 

 in the loneliest village on the dreary East coast ; 

 at that spot where, standing on the flat desolate 

 shore you look over the North Sea, and have no 

 land between you and far Spitzbergen. He 

 answered, that he made his home there because it 



