1890.] 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



177 



found of dry land, and spend the greater part of the day sunning 

 themselves on the edge of the tank or gheel which they frequent. 

 They feed chiefly on worms and insects, food which they sift from the 

 mud with their broad beaks, but I have my suspicions that their food 

 in some of the places in which I saw them was none of the cleanest. 



" Other species of Shoveller," says Dr. Jerdon, " are found in 

 " Africa, South America, and Australia ; and Malacorhynchus 

 " membvanaccus Latham, is a somewhat allied form, from New 

 " Holland, with the edge of the bill prolonged on each side into a 

 " hanging membranous flap." 



THE GEOLOGY OF SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



By R. K. HUNT, 



As the Entomological and other fauna of the North of Scotland is 

 now receiving much attention owing to the many pecular forms found 

 there, especially amongst lepidoptera, and as some believe that these 

 peculiarities depend on the nature of the soil on which the food of the 

 larva grows, a short account of the geology of Sutherland may not be 

 uninteresting. 



The rocks of North-western Scotland are severed into two groups 

 by a line which begins on the Atlantic coast, and thence winds south- 

 wards and westwards through the mountains of Assynt to the west- 

 ward parts of Ross and Inverness. The scenery of the eastern region 

 is entirely made up of one formation of rock, and is more monotonous 

 than that of the west, but the mountains possess a massive grandeur, 

 at once magnificent and awe-inspiring, rising into such imposing piles 

 as Ben Hope 3,040 ft, Meall Horn 2,348 ft, Ben Leod 2,597 ft, Ben 

 Hee 2,864 ft> Ben Klibreck 2,367 ft, Ben Morven 2,313 ft, renowned 

 as the haunt of the golden-crested Eagle, a magnificent specimen of 

 which was captured a few years back on Ben Armine 2,278 ft. 

 and sent to the Zoological Gardens. In Ben Guam More and Ben 

 Guam Beg the basal conglomerate rises steeply from a brown waste 

 of peat and heather, into huge pyramids which form conspicuous land 

 marks for the low country to the north. Isolated remnants of the old 

 Red Sandstone scattered over the metamorphic rocks between Tongue 

 and the Moray Firth add spirit to the landscape. By far the most 

 picturesque of all the mountains of Sutherland is, however, Ben 



