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 pass 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.