144 A VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE MORAY BASIN. 



such as Deveron, Spey, and Findhorn. But upon the north shore 

 there are fewer avenues of escape ; and the nature of the coasts 

 north of Tarbet Ness, or the coasts of Caithness and part of Suther- 

 land is less tempting to migrants. 



Eaptorial Birds, which on migration appear first to strike the 

 Caithness coast between Dunbeath and Ousdale and the Ord 

 (vide our volume on The Fauna of Sutherland and Caithness), do 

 not appear to penetrate very far inland, but to linger in a certain 

 favourite hollow amongst the hills of the Ord for a time, as if for 

 rest and refreshment, and then to pass down the coast-line of 

 Sutherland, between the shore and the high hills of the Dunrobin 

 Deer Forest, occasionally straggling inland, however, along the 

 dividing range between Sutherland and Caithness, or occurring 

 amongst the wilder portions of the highlands of East Sutherland. 

 Of these we may instance : The Eough-legged Buzzard, the Honey 

 Buzzard, Goshawk, and Snowy Owl. The high land of the Ord no 

 doubt attracts their attention from long distances out at sea, and 

 regulates their course afterwards towards the south. 



Land-Birds which come to us from easterly directions, if they 

 strike the east coast of Aberdeenshire outside the entrance to the 

 Moray Firth, only gain access, i.e, in normal conditions of winds 

 favourable to their passage, at certain low-lying portions of the 

 coast — such as the mouths of Dee and Don, the links of New- 

 burgh, at the embouchure of the river Ythan, or the sandy links 

 and Loch of Strathbeg in the north of the county. They do not, 

 by choice, care to face the forbidding rocky and precipitous shores 

 which abut upon the North Sea, throughout the remaining portions 

 of the north-east coast-line. 



A large body of the migrants, after reaching off Kinnaird Head 

 — probably the larger portion — no doubt follows the coast-line of 

 the south shore of the Firth, until the high-cliffy coasts of Pennan, 

 Troup, and Gamrie are passed ; nor does it appear that any large 

 detachments escape by any lateral valleys until the liver Deveron 

 is reached. But the first great inducement to the wearied migrants 

 appears, when — scarcely raised above sea-level, and certainly at an 

 altitude more upon the same plane as that of the birds' flight — the 

 Laigh of Moray and the wide embouchure of the noble river Spey 



