Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/179

Rh near the shore, above high-water mark, and are easily recognisable, even at a distance, by their rising eight or nine feet above the level sand. They all contain heaps of rough stones, which may be the remains of the hut, but the bulk of the mound is composed of shells of such edible mollusks as Littorina littorea, Patella vulgaris, Cardium edule, &c. Bones also of the cow, horse, sheep and pig are common, and are almost always split up—an entire bone is rare. These shell-mounds are less rich in remains than those of the Hebrides, and they cannot claim to be of high antiquity; that they are not of yesterday, however, is clear from the fact that on the shore adjacent no periwinkles or limpets can now be got, and the oldest inhabitant has no tradition of their origin. Their probable date may be the fifteenth or sixteenth century.

 

cold and backward spring, with a long continuance of easterly winds, may account for the non-arrival in 1876 of at least one summer migrant and the appearance in diminished numbers of some others. But whilst it deprived us of these, it appeared so to check the northward migration of our winter birds that, in one or two instances, they found it convenient to remain and breed with us. To this cause, at least, I attribute the breeding of the Hooded Crow, Spotted Crake, and some other birds in this neighbourhood in the summer of 1876.

Although I cannot say that we had any remarkable feature worth especial mention, we had nevertheless some very interesting occurrences which were unusual and new to me. These were the breeding of the Redshank in three or four different localities; the nesting of the Red-backed Shrike, and that of the Spotted Crake, which latter fact, though not absolutely established, is so far proved that I think there is no doubt about it.

My notices of the arrival of our spring migrants are very incomplete, owing partly to the very cold weather, which prevented them giving their well-known notes, and partly to their great irregularity in arrival, so much so that in many cases I gave up looking for them. I do not at any time attach much importance to these  Rh