OF SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS. 
53 
treme north-east of Caithness upland again occurs, especially in 
the parisli of Canisbay, as a glance at the map will at once 
show, but this part of the county contains by far the largest por- 
tion of uninterrupted cultivated land. Southward from Wick it 
becomes again much contracted, soon giving way inland — first to 
upland, and then to interminable flow-land, or, in the south-east, 
to the celebrated grouse-moors of Dunbeath, and the mountainous 
districts of Berriedale and Langwell. 
Noss Head Lighthouse was visited in company with Mr. William 
Keid of Wick, on the 4th July. Mr. Reid — formerly bookseller in 
Kirkwall — is over seventy years of age, hale, hearty, light, spare, 
straight, and active ; has grey beard, but dark auburn hair ; is 
weathered and wiry. Ever since a " laddie " he has been a keen 
naturalist, observant and enamoured of ISTature for ISTature's sake. 
This is evident in his walk and conversation — a man with whom 
to pass a long sumnier day in the open, is, as we now know, a 
pleasure of no ordinary kind. 
ISToss Head Light lies open to the north-north-east, east, south- 
east, and south-south-east, and is 175 feet above the sea. No land- 
interruption occurs ; nevertheless it is almost utterly unvisited by 
birds. Why ? Dunnet Head is equally deserted, but there, land 
does lie eastward of the light, and no doubt partly intercepts the 
birds arriving at night, if they do come that way : Holborn Head 
is also unvisited, but it too is landlocked to a considerable extent. 
But Noss Head stands clear out and faces the wide IsTorth Sea, and 
the spray in a north-east gale flies almost as high as the lantern 
dome. Mr. Greig, the present light-keeper, is quite at a loss to 
account for the scarcity of bird-life, as in other localities on the 
east coast, almost identically situated, he has witnessed many 
great, though never regularly-running , migrations. Meanwhile we 
can only partly account for it by supposing — and there is much to 
bear this out — that Caithness, or this part of it, does not to any 
appreciable degree participate in the general great autumn migra- 
tion of birds coming in over the cliff edge.'' 
1 See General Remarks in Migration Report for East Coast of Scotland, 1885, 
p. 7, et seqq. 
