F. Darling - Natural History in the Highlands and Islands

Collins New Naturalist Library

6

TO THE MEMORY OF

WILLIAM ORR, F.R.C.V.S.

† Singapore, December 1945

KENNETH McDOUGALL, M.Sc., M.R.C.V.S.

† Normandy, August 1944

WHO KNEW AND LOVED THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS

AND THE WILD LIFE THEREIN

JAMES FISHER M.A.

JOHN GILMOUR M.A.

JULIAN S. HUXLEY M.A. D.Sc. F.R.S.

L. DUDLEY STAMP B.A. D.Sc.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EDITOR:

ERIC HOSKING F.R.P.S.

The aim of this series is to interest the general reader in the wild life of Britain by recapturing the inquiring spirit of the old naturalist. The Editors believe that the natural pride of the British public in the native fauna and flora, to which must be added concern for their conservation, is best fostered by maintaining a high standard of accuracy combined with clarity of exposition in presenting the results of modern scientific research. The plants and animals are described in relation to their homes and habitats and are portrayed in the full beauty of their natural colours, by the latest methods of colour photography and reproduction.

Cover Page

Title Page Collins New Naturalist Library 6

Editors Editors: Editors Editor’s preface Author’s preface CHAPTER 1 GEOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHAPTER 2 RELIEF AND SCENERY CHAPTER 3 RELIEF AND SCENERY (continued) CHAPTER 4 THE HUMAN FACTOR AND REMARKABLE CHANGES IN POPULATIONS OF ANIMALS CHAPTER 5 THE DEER FOREST GROUSE MOOR AND SHEEP FARM CHAPTER 6 THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE RED DEER CHAPTER 7 THE PINE FOREST, BIRCH WOOD AND OAK WOOD CHAPTER 8 THE SUMMITS OF THE HILLS CHAPTER 9 THE SHORE, THE SEA LOCH AND THE SHALLOW SEAS CHAPTER 10 THE SUB-OCEANIC ISLAND CHAPTER 11 THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE ATLANTIC GREY SEAL CHAPTER 12 FRESH WATERS: LOCHS AND RIVER SYSTEMS Conclusion Bibliography Maps showing the distribution of certain animals in the highlands Index Black and White Plates Colour Plates Copyright About the Publisher JAMES FISHER M.A. JOHN GILMOUR M.A. JULIAN S. HUXLEY M.A. D.Sc. F.R.S. L. DUDLEY STAMP B.A. D.Sc. PHOTOGRAPHIC EDITOR: ERIC HOSKING F.R.P.S. The aim of this series is to interest the general reader in the wild life of Britain by recapturing the inquiring spirit of the old naturalist. The Editors believe that the natural pride of the British public in the native fauna and flora, to which must be added concern for their conservation, is best fostered by maintaining a high standard of accuracy combined with clarity of exposition in presenting the results of modern scientific research. The plants and animals are described in relation to their homes and habitats and are portrayed in the full beauty of their natural colours, by the latest methods of colour photography and reproduction.

Editor’s preface

Author’s preface

CHAPTER 1GEOLOGY AND CLIMATE

CHAPTER 2RELIEF AND SCENERY

CHAPTER 3RELIEF AND SCENERY (continued)

CHAPTER 4THE HUMAN FACTOR AND REMARKABLE CHANGES IN POPULATIONS OF ANIMALS

CHAPTER 5THE DEER FOREST GROUSE MOOR AND SHEEP FARM

CHAPTER 6THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE RED DEER

CHAPTER 7THE PINE FOREST, BIRCH WOOD AND OAK WOOD

CHAPTER 8THE SUMMITS OF THE HILLS

CHAPTER 9THE SHORE, THE SEA LOCH AND THE SHALLOW SEAS

CHAPTER 10THE SUB-OCEANIC ISLAND

CHAPTER 11THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE ATLANTIC GREY SEAL

CHAPTER 12FRESH WATERS: LOCHS AND RIVER SYSTEMS

Conclusion

Bibliography

Maps showing the distribution of certain animals in the highlands

Index

Black and White Plates

Colour Plates

Copyright

About the Publisher

FOR MANY years Dr. F. Fraser Darling has found his field of work in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. One of his pioneer researches was into the social behaviour of a herd of red deer, in an area of Wester Ross dominated by the massif of An Teallach. In 1936 he began the first of two seasons’ work on Priest Island of the Summer Isles, studying the social structure of gull colonies and of small flocks of grey lag geese and other gregarious birds. It was from this work that Dr. Darling was led to enunciate his theory connecting the size of a social group of gregarious animals, with its breeding-time, and breeding-success. Statistical analysis and further observation by other workers have confirmed this theory and shown it to be of wide biological importance. Darling then made protracted autumn and winter visits to Lunga of the Treshnish Isles, and to North Rona, in order to study a further type of animal sociality, that of the Atlantic grey seal, an animal of whose life history we knew surprisingly little. He also worked his small farm on Tanera in the Summer Isles in such fashion as to show that it was possible and reasonable to raise considerably the stock-carrying capacity of the West Highlands and to grow a large amount of human food under crofting conditions.

Fraser Darling is a born naturalist, was brought up to farming, and became a scientist as thoroughly and quickly as academic discipline permitted. His first researches (at the Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh University) were on the Scottish Mountain Blackface breed of sheep. He combines the qualities of a trained biologist and practical farmer with those of a sensitive field observer. As a humanist he is considering the Highland problem with none of the peculiar obsessions with which it has so often been approached: some Highland countrymen believe only in sport, or stalking, or sheep: others believe that no problem is more important than crofting, or water power, or the tourist industry, or the collecting of rare alpine plants. Fraser Darling’s sympathies are with all the interesting problems of living things in the Highlands, not least with the human species which—in this wild part of Britain where man is in such close contact with the natural physical environment—must be regarded in relation to the others. It is in this spirit that he is interpreting his present work as Director of the West Highland Survey.

In this book, which is the first effort, so far as we are aware, to give a picture of Highland natural history as a whole, Dr. Darling has, naturally, expanded on those subjects with which he is most familiar—the life histories of seals, deer and sea-birds, and the ecology of grazing and regeneration of forest growth. Nevertheless, he has a general view, derived from a wide and mature experience, tempered with homely wisdom, and illuminated by his genuine love for the Highlands. There is, in this book, no aura of bogus romance; there are no purple passages or sporting reminiscences: instead, he has given us something of the real essence of Scotland’s land and sea.