504 
PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 
It was at the little crofter village of Scourie, about 20 miles 
south of Cape Wrath, and some 500 miles north of Norwich, 
that I spent a fortnight of my annual holiday in June last, 
and so full of interest did I find this district with the adjacent 
island of Handa, that I think perhaps a description of it will 
be of more interest to you to-night than an attempt on my 
part at original observations on any other subject, for which 
I have not at present sufficient workable data. 
The journey from Norwich to Scourie must occupy tw T o 
days, because the last 45 miles from Lairg, the nearest point 
on the Highland Railway, has to be covered in the mail 
motor-bus which leaves Lairg daily at 10 a.m. Lairg itself 
is a small town at the eastern end of Loch Shin, and is the 
centre from which coaches start for the villages and towns 
further north. It possesses a very comfortable hotel in the 
“ Sutherland Arms ” overlooking the lake, and here one 
must stay the night if intending to proceed to the West Coast. 
The only item of ornithological interest that I have to 
note in connection with Lairg is the fact that there is a small 
colony of Black-headed Gulls breeding here. One of these 
birds had become very tame, and would take without fear at 
meal times any dainty morsels that were placed on - the 
dining-room window-sill for him. On the adjacent moors 
I came across several pairs of Curlews with either eggs or 
young ones, and, near by, a few pairs of the Common Gull, 
the eggs of which I found. 
On the morning of June 6th at 10 a.m., we, that is, my 
wife and I, started off in the motor for Scourie where we arrived 
at 4.30 in the afternoon. The road for the first twenty miles 
borders upon the northern side of Loch Shin, and the scenery 
over this part presents nothing very striking. We then 
begin to enter the famous Reay forest and get into one of the 
wildest and boldest parts of Sutherlandshire. At Stack, the 
shooting-lodge of the Duke of Westminster, the scenery is very 
fine, and here, so I was informed, a pair of Golden Eagles 
still have their eyrie. As we passed through, it was my 
