Gairloch In North-West Ross-Shire Part 32

BROWN RAT (_Mus dec.u.ma.n.u.s_).--This obnoxious creature swarms everywhere.

They arrived in this country about 1860. It is said they had been known before for a short time, but had disappeared.

BLACK RAT (_Mus rattus_).--The old black rat is very scarce. Mr John Munro tells me that he has seen it near a bothie on a mountain in Gairloch. It is not such an objectionable beast as the brown rat.

MOUSE (_Mus musculus_).--The common mouse is very abundant everywhere.

WATER RAT, or WATER VOLE (_Arvicola amphibius_).--Mr O. H. Mackenzie says this rat is not uncommon, though rarely seen.

LONG-TAILED FIELD-MOUSE (_Mus sylvaticus_).--This creature, which is not a vole but a veritable mouse, is found about gardens in Gairloch, where it eats the bulbs of the crocus, tulip, &c. Mr O. H. Mackenzie tells me that he has actually found this mouse (February 1885) inside the house at Tournaig eating fruit on the shelves.

SHORT-TAILED FIELD-MOUSE (_Arvicola agrestis_).--It is common enough, and is found in corn-fields.

SHREW (_Corsira vulgaris_).--The common shrew-mouse is quite common.

Cats will not eat them. The shrew lives on worms.

WATER-SHREW (_Crossopus fodiens_).--The pretty little black water-shrew is not often seen. Mr O. H. Mackenzie gave me a specimen on 13th October 1885.

MOLE (_Talpa Europaea_).--The mole is now very abundant, but was quite unknown in Gairloch twenty years ago, and no one can tell how it came here. No doubt the mole does good, but it is very annoying to see a newly-sown patch of vegetables or flower-seeds destroyed all along the top of the underground path of the mole.

BAT (_Pleiotus communis_).--The common bat is frequent. Only the common small kind is found in Gairloch. It is seen near woods and houses on calm evenings.

SEAL (_Phoca vitulina_).--The common seal is often noticed in Gairloch and Loch Ewe, especially near the mouths of streams. They do not breed here.

PORPOISE (_Phocna communis_).--The porpoise is not uncommon in the sea lochs of Gairloch. I have known one approach close to Poolewe, at the head of Loch Ewe, no doubt attracted by shoals of herring which were then in the loch.

WHALE, SHARK, and GRAMPUS.--Occasionally a whale, shark, or grampus is observed off the coast of Gairloch.

ARCTIC FOX (_Vulpes lagopus_).--On 30th January 1878 an Arctic fox was trapped by Mr John Munro, on the edge of a very small sheet of water at the back of the Bac an Leth-Choin, on the North Point, about two miles from Rudha Reidh. The remains of several hares had previously been found with the head and neck eaten off to the shoulders. This fox was a female, and quite white, and its shape was unmistakeably that of the true Arctic fox. It was set up by Mr W. A. M'Leay, of Inverness, and is now in the possession of Mr S. W. Clowes of Norbury, Derbyshire, who has for many years been a shooting tenant on the Gairloch estate. It is impossible to determine how this animal, which does not belong to the British isles, had found its way to the North Point. The following occurrences of the Arctic fox in the Highlands were narrated to me by Mr M'Leay, of Inverness:--

An old Gairloch shepherd, who had been a foxhunter in his younger days, shot an Arctic fox, about 1848, while on a pa.s.s before the hounds on the heights of Monar. There never was a fox known in that district which made such fearful havoc amongst lambs.

About 1871 an Arctic fox was sent to Mr M'Leay for preservation, for Lord Abinger. Mr M'Leay inserted a descriptive paragraph in the local newspapers. In the course of a few days he had a letter from a gentleman in Peterhead, asking particularly about it, and saying that an Arctic fox had been given him by the master of a Greenland whaler, which he had kept chained in his yard for upwards of a year; that six weeks before it had managed to escape, and though he had advertised offering a good reward for its recovery, no trace could be got of it. From Mr M'Leay's description he had no doubt it was his fox. How it had managed to elude all the keepers, guns, traps, and snares between Peterhead and Fort-William, a distance of about two hundred miles, was very strange.

Another Arctic fox was shot at Inverness on 14th February 1878, within three weeks of the capture of the Gairloch specimen. Mr Findlay, superintendent of Tomnahurich, observed the fox in the cemetery, and chase being given it was driven down towards the Infirmary. After an exciting run, the animal was shot in the field at the back of Tomnahurich Street.

I cannot but suppose that the Arctic foxes of Gairloch and Inverness, killed so near the same date, had a common origin, but nothing positive is known of their previous history.

Chapter VI.

BIRDS OF GAIRLOCH.

In compiling the following list and notes I have had the valuable aid of Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie of Inverewe, who is a life-long ornithologist and observer of nature. He has spent more of his life in his native country than perhaps any other Highland gentleman now alive. He has very rarely been absent even in winter. He allows me to say that he is mainly responsible for this list. It includes more than one hundred and fifty species, or supposed species. Our effort has been to make the notes absolutely accurate, but nesting-places are generally not stated for obvious reasons. It is earnestly hoped that the information contained in this chapter will not be made use of by visitors to enable them to disturb, destroy, or rob any of the interesting birds of Gairloch.

Mr J. A. Harvie Brown, of Dunipace, has kindly placed at my service a list of birds observed by him in the spring and early summer of 1884 at Aultbea in Gairloch, at Priest Island off the north-east corner of Gairloch parish, and at Gruinard on its northern boundary; and this list is referred to in several cases.

The order and scientific nomenclature are the same as adopted in the revised edition of "Yarrell's British Birds," by Newton and Saunders.

GOLDEN EAGLE, or BLACK EAGLE (_Aquila chrysaetus_).--This n.o.ble bird, which is slightly smaller than the erne, is not uncommon in Gairloch. I have seen a pair hovering near the head of Loch Maree, and I have frequently noticed single birds soaring high in air. One Sunday afternoon I saw an eagle mobbed by curlews within half-a-mile of Inveran. It nests in the parish, always on ledges of precipitous rocks.

There is an eyrie on Meall a Ghuibhais. For anecdotes of the golden eagle see Part III., chap iii. One was trapped on the Inverewe ground, in February 1885, by Mr John Matheson, who has been gamekeeper at Inverewe nearly twenty years.

WHITE-TAILED, or SEA EAGLE, or ERNE (_Haliaeetus albicilla_).--Occasionally occurs. A pair formerly nested annually in Eilean na h' Iolair (Eagle Isle), on Fionn Loch. In 1850 there was a nest on Beinn Aridh Charr. A fine specimen, trapped on Bathais [Bus]

Bheinn, in 1879, is in the collection at Inveran.

OSPREY, or FISHING EAGLE (_Pandion haliaeetus_).--This now rare and very interesting bird, called by the natives "Allan the fisherman," or "the fisherman," is occasionally seen. One was observed in Gairloch, about 1880, by Mr John Munro. It is not now known to nest in the parish. There were formerly three nesting-places in Gairloch,--(1) in Eilean Suainne, in Loch Maree, on a point nearly opposite Isle Maree; (2) on a fir-tree on a small island in a loch on Eilean Suainne; and (3) on a stack or insulated rock in a small loch called Loch an Iasgair (the loch of "the fisherman"), near the Little Gruinard River. The last nest in any of these places was about 1852; an osprey was shot from the garden at Inveran in that year. I have been told of other nesting-places in Gairloch by old men, who say the osprey used to be abundant in the parish.

PEREGRINE-FALCON (_Falco peregrinus_).--The peregrine is abundant in Gairloch. During the spring of 1884 Mr John Munro, who has been gamekeeper on the North Point since 1865, and is a noted trapper of vermin, trapped no fewer than eight peregrines on the North Point, besides what were trapped during the same spring by other keepers in the parish. There are several nesting-places in Gairloch, all on ledges on the faces of rocky precipices. If one of a pair preparing to nest be killed, another bird takes its place within a few days, and even where both birds have been destroyed another pair has been known to occupy their nest in a very short time. Though mostly keeping out of gunshot, the peregrine is sometimes very bold. For instance, in 1883, one swooped at a hen close to a house in Londubh; it missed its mark, and, unintentionally no doubt, took a header into a wash-tub, whence it was taken alive. The peregrine destroys more grouse than any other winged vermin; it is believed that each bird kills at least one grouse for its own sustenance every day, and when they have their young, a pair of them have been known to kill five grouse in one day, so that it has been truly said that the bag made by each peregrine is at the least equal to that of one gun on a moor.

MERLIN (_Falco aesalon_).--This pretty little hawk is very common, and its nests are often taken. It usually nests in long heather on a steep hillside.

KESTREL (_Falco tinnunculus_).--This universal hawk is as common in Gairloch as elsewhere. It builds mostly on rocks. It occasionally kills young grouse, and takes them to its nest. Mr John Munro has actually shot kestrels whilst carrying young grouse in their claws to their young. Mr Harvie Brown has observed similar freaks on the part of the kestrel, but he does not think the defect is generically const.i.tutional.

SPARROW-HAWK (_Accipiter nisus_).--The sparrow-hawk is common. It nests in trees. I have seen several nests. The female sparrow-hawk resembles the male peregrine both in size and plumage. In all birds of prey the female is larger than the male, whilst in other birds the reverse is usually the case. The sparrow-hawk kills young grouse, and has been seen by Mr John Munro pecking at an old grouse which was still warm, and had probably been killed by it.

KITE, or GLEAD (_Milvus ictinus_).--Was formerly common in Gairloch, but has not been observed for many years. Strychnine was on one occasion put into the dead body of a horse, and the result was that a large number of kites were (intentionally) poisoned. This would be about 1825; kites were then very numerous here, and even destroyed poultry. The Gaelic name is Clabhan gobhlach nan cearc, or "fork [tailed] buzzard of the hens."

BUZZARD (_Buteo vulgaris_).--This bird, which closely resembles the golden eagle, but is much smaller, is common, but seldom breeds in Gairloch. It used to nest in Craig Tollie. It is not so destructive to game as some of the lesser hawks.

HEN-HARRIER (_Circus cyaneus_).--This hawk is tolerably common, but is not known to nest in Gairloch. When out grouse shooting one day I saw a hen-harrier strike and kill a grouse just beyond gunshot. I gathered the grouse, but the harrier escaped.

TAWNY OWL, or BROWN OWL (_Strix aluco_).--This owl is common, and breeds in Gairloch. They seem to frequent woods and rocks, and at night their loud wailing hoot or howl is often heard. I believe they are harmless as regards game.

LONG-EARED OWL (_Asio otus_).--This bird occurs, but is not common. It is a migrant, and does not breed here.

SHORT-EARED OWL (_Asio accipitrinus_).--This owl is not uncommon in Gairloch. It is a migrant, and comes with the woodc.o.c.k. It is not known to breed in Gairloch. Mr O. H. Mackenzie once shot five over setters in the Isle of Ewe in the month of November.

WHITE OWL, or BARN OWL (_Aluco flammeus_).--This owl is also common, and here generally nests in cracks in rocks.

SPOTTED FLYCATCHER (_Muscicapa grisola_).--Common. It nests near houses.

I have seen its nest at Inveran (1885). Both Mr O. H. Mackenzie and Mr Harvie Brown have noticed several pairs in Gairloch parish.

GOLDEN ORIOLE (_Oriolus galbula_).--This splendid bird is very rare here. Mr O. H. Mackenzie, and a friend with him, saw one at Coile Aigeascaig on 25th May 1884. One was shot in the garden at Mungasdale (the farm of Gruinard) about 1870. This place is within three miles of the northern boundary of Gairloch.

DIPPER, or WATER OUZEL (_Cinclus aquaticus_).--Very common on all rivers and burns, and on the margins of lochs. It is called in Gaelic Gobha dubh an uisge, or "the water blacksmith." I have seen several of its remarkable nests behind small waterfalls, or on rocks overhanging running water. It is one of the first of the small birds to build its nest. On 31st January 1879, and on several days before and after that day, I saw an immense number of dippers on the river Ewe. I counted nearly a hundred within a length of a mile. They were of the ordinary brown-breasted kind. Two of them are in my collection, and other two (I believe) in the national collection. I can offer no explanation of this unusual gathering. It is interesting to watch this active little bird diving in running water. It is now acquitted of the charge formerly made against it of eating the ova of fish. It lives on water insects and their larvae.

MISTLETOE THRUSH, or STORM-c.o.c.k (_t.u.r.dus viscivorus_).--This bird occurs in Gairloch, though not commonly. Mr O. H. Mackenzie saw a nest in a rock at Inverewe recently. He unmistakably identified the birds and the eggs. The storm-c.o.c.k used to be abundant in Gairloch, and built generally in oak trees.

SONG-THRUSH, or MAVIS (_t.u.r.dus musicus_).--Very common. It nests in trees, bushes, and tall heather. Mr Reid, of Isle Ewe, says that the mavis builds in walls there for lack of trees. Some years ago Mr O. H.

Mackenzie killed one with a ring round its neck, such as the ring-ouzel has. This anomalous specimen may be seen at Inverewe.

REDWING (_t.u.r.dus iliacus_).--Common. It has been known to remain in Gairloch all summer, making it probable that it breeds here.

FIELDFARE (_t.u.r.dus pilaris_).--Common. A migrant. Not known to nest here.

BLACKBIRD (_t.u.r.dus merula_).--Common enough now, but it is said to have been formerly unknown in Gairloch.