Charles St. John's note books 1846-1856; Invererne, Nairn, Elgin

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THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

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CHARLES ST JOHN'S
NOTE BOOKS

CHARLES ST JOHN'S

NOTE BOOKS

1846-1853

INVERERNE, NAIRN, ELGIN
EDITED BY ADMIRAL H. C. ST JOHN

EDINBURGH : DAVID DOUGLAS, 10 CASTLE STREET

1901

PREFACE.

ON my return from the East, I found amongst other notes and
rough sketches of my father's his daily journal, which he kept
with accuracy when living at Invererne (near Torres). Sub-
mitting it to my friend Mr David Douglas, the compiler and
editor of " Natural History and Sport in Moray," published in
1863, and reissued with additions in 1882, now entirely out
of print, he thought that although most of the facts had been
recorded in that volume, yet the daily record of the author's
observations at Invererne was so fresh that he ventured to think
they would be interesting to all lovers of Natural History.

I have introduced some of the rough sketches made for the
amusement and instruction of his children. These are taken at
random from his sketch books. On the fly leaves of the volume
will be found those for our amusement.

The " Memoir " by Cosmo limes and " Life at Kosehall,"
which both appear in " Natural History and Sport in Moray,"
are added ; also a few remarks of my own on visiting the locality
in 1900.

STOKEFIELD, THORNBUKY.

M351 874

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION. PAC,ES

I. MORAY KEVISITED, . . 1-4

II. SALMON FISHING, . . . 4-12

MEMOIR BY COSMO INNES, . 13-26

LIFE AT KOSEHALL, . . . 29-52

NOTE BOOKS, . .- . • ,53-119

Edinburgh : Printed by George Waterston & Sotis

FOR
DAVID DOUGLAS

LONDON, . . SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO., LIMITED
CAMBRIDGE, . MACMILLAN AND BOWES
GLASGOW, . . JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS

FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.

CORMORANT, . . . . . . . . . r Frontispiece.

WILD CAT, . . . . . Vignette of, on Title-page.

HEAD OF THE MUCKLE HART, ,- . , facing page 18

KOE, ; . . ,, 54

GULL, . . . . „ 80

HERON, . . . .. .- „ 86

WOODCOCK, . ..'.... „ 96

PEREGRINE, . . . . „ 110

ON LOCH SPYNIE, ..... 116

INVERERNE.

INTRODUCTION.
I.

MORAY REVISITED.

AFTER such a long absence it was most interesting to visit old
haunts and localities in Moray shire. From the railway station
at Torres a path leads across the field to the river Findhorn —
distant about three-quarters of a mile. Here I found the Ferry
still worked with a flat-bottomed boat (a coble in Scotland)
pulled from bank to bank by a wire stretched over the water.
The ferryman's hut was, I verily believe, the same log cabin.
How often I have called the boatman from his quiet siesta on
a warm sunny afternoon. Here the river is exactly as it used
to be. Its rich brown clear water gives the sides and silvery
underneath parts of the fresh running salmon a tinge of brown
when he turns from a rise. Following the river down a mile
or so to its mouth it was difficult to realise that so many years
had passed since I used so often to do so. The pools were

2 - . INTRODUCTION.

unaltered. The piles and timber used to strengthen the east
bank from the floods might be the same as far as their appear-
ance went.

The pleasure in visiting these well-remembered scenes was
greatly increased by the interest my youngest daughter, who
accompanied me, took in the river, the birds, and rny relating
boyish adventures at certain spots. We found a common sand-
piper's nest with five eggs close to the river, where any ordinary
flood would have washed it away.

As we walked along the raised embankment, redshanks and
peewits kept flying close to our heads, uttering anxious notes of
warning to their young. The cornfields, where wild geese were
formerly so fond of feeding, are now divided by wire instead of
stone walls — a gain, no doubt, in surface cultivation.

The bank all round the bay, protecting the land from being
inundated at very high tides, is exactly as it used to be. It runs
up to the Torres Burn and follows its bank some distance towards
the town.

" Invererne " remains intact. The same iron gates at the
beginning of the long entrance drive still do duty. The garden
has many of the old fruit-trees in it, which might be replaced
to advantage. The farm buildings, with its " Doo " cot, seem in
as good condition as of old.

The number of birds, waders and others, that were enjoying
themselves round the low grassy sward between the sea wall and
the water spoke well for the consideration and protection they
must enjoy.

Nairn and its immediate neighbourhood has changed more
than any of its adjacent towns. Elgin has certainly increased,
but the country all round remains as of old.

Scotch farming in those days was so forward and good,
little improvement could be expected. The substitution of wire
for wall fencing was the only difference that struck me. Whisky
distilleries are far more numerous, springing up from heather-
covered spots where grouse and other game used to be common.
The streams by which these numerous (I presume successful)

INTRODUCTION. 3

money-making affairs are always located receive their poisonous
refuse, which forms a slimy deposit on the stones and rocks, very
much to the detriment of trout or salmon, particularly the young
fry.

In May 1851 I was at the Loch of Spynie with my father
and Mr John Hancock looking for the shoveller's nest ; and
having watched one of these birds alight in the long grass
bordering the open water, we approached quietly and the duck
flushed close to us. The nest with several eggs was in some
long grass. At the time I speak of, this bird was not common
in the locality, and its really nesting was not certain. Great
was Mr Hancock's pleasure at procuring an authentic specimen
of the egg.

In 1897 I was once more close to the same spot, and the
above incident was brought vividly to my recollection. Scarcely
100 yards had I gone down the big drain which runs through
the great extent of swamp and into the open water, when I
came on a couple of drake shovellers, and a short way on
a duck and seven little shovellers. A hundred yards further,
another brood of about five, with their mother, swam out of the
tall rushes into the open water.

I visited the rocks below Gordonstown and found the pere-
grine falcon was still there. It was here we used to get the
young birds to train for hawking. Although the Lossie is prac-
tically ruined for trout fishing owing to the number of mills
which now adorn its banks, nearly all discharging refuse matter
into the small river, and being quite unequal to carry it away,
its bed for miles is slimy with filth, poisonous to fish. As the
tide comes up sea trout come with it, and can be taken with
the fly just above the fishing village of Lossiemouth. Possibly
during a heavy flood some may go up the river and get past the
mills, which are mainly close to Elgin.

When returning south by Loch Ness it was wonderful to see
the tameness of the black-headed gulls that followed the steamer,
almost taking the bread from my hand, which I held out over the
vessel's side. They approached in numbers within two and three

4 INTRODUCTION.

feet. This tameness deserted them on leaving the loch, when the
birds only followed in our wake.

I stopped a night at the Fall of Foyers, which, as far as the
amount of water that comes over the rock and used to give the
interest and name to the locality, is now a misnomer. Enough
to fill a jug certainly trickles down, but the beautiful falls no
longer exist.

How lovely the scenery down the loch is. The big Mountain
Mealfourvonie on the west side, on which I have seen and shot
many a fine stag, has a peculiar charm, with its purple side, bare
rocks, and lower portions sprinkled with birch and Scotch fir.
This mountain is a sure find for deer amongst the Glen Urquhart
Forests.

I have visited most of the world since I lived at Aldourie, on
the bank of this Scotch lake, and have seen little to beat its
beauty, much on a grander scale, but not otherwise.

II.

SALMON FISHING.

THE number of salmon nets and boats I saw between the ferry
on the Findhorn and the mouth of the river brought vividly to
my mind the following remarks made by my father in 1846 : —

" There is no doubt that salmon are decreasing yearly in most
of the northern rivers. With blind eagerness these fish are
hunted down, trapped and caught in every possible way ; and
in consequence of this reckless destruction, proprietors of
most salmon rivers will, before many years have elapsed, lose the
high rents which they now derive from letting the right of
fishing to sportsmen and speculators. It is perfectly reasonable
to suppose that, like other animals, fish must of necessity
decrease unless allowed fairplay and time to breed. It is
not the rod fisher who thins their number to any injurious
extent ; nor, indeed, do I think river fishing to any fair extent

INTRODUCTION. 5

can exterminate a fish whose progeny is so numerous ; but what,
without doubt, ought to be restricted and better regulated is
the system of stake and bag net fishing. The salmon never
reach their breeding ground at all. The mouths of every
river are flanked by stake nets and other dangers. The poor
salmon have not the slightest chance. Coasting along the shore,
on approaching the fresh water they find a fence which they
cannot get through by any means, and which leads them direct
into an iniquitous puzzle or trap. If the object of proprietors
and lessees of rivers was to exterminate salmon, they could
not devise better means to do so than they now practise.
Exorbitant and increasing rents necessarily oblige the lessees
to use every means in their power to catch sufficient fish to pay
their expenses and acquire a surplus. The man who rents
a salmon river as a matter of trade and speculation cannot
be expected to do otherwise than make the best of his time.
He pays a high rent for the right of dragging a net through
a certain part of the river ; he pays a rent for the right of
putting up stake and bag nets ; he pays numerous servants, and
has also the great expense of making and renewing his boats, nets,
and other valuable tackle ; and, after all, is generally blamed as
the destroyer of the salmon, whereas the real enemy is the pro-
prietor who lets the right of fishing, with no more restriction
than the common law gives against fishing out of season, etc.
At the same time, it must be remembered that one single
proprietor can do little towards improving this system unless
joined and aided by his neighbours for a considerable distance
along the same line of coast.

" A few years without any wholesale destruction of salmon
would bring back this fish to something like their former
number, and enable proprietors to ask and obtain the same rents
that they now do from English and other sportsmen who
come northwards for angling. As it now is, angling in many
salmon rivers (formerly plentifully supplied) is a mere joke.

" Excepting during the run of grilse, angling in many rivers is
next to useless ; and this can only be well remedied by a system

6 INTRODUCTION.

of unanimous and general preserving the fish from being so
recklessly destroyed by the net.

" I do not pretend to give a guide book list and account of all
the rivers, streams, and lakes where the angler may find employ-
ment. Their name is legion, arid it would require more time and
more knowledge of the Highlands than I possess.

" There are few districts, however, from Ayrshire to Caithness
where trout and salmon do not abound. Many excellent streams
run into the Sol way Firth, and many good lakes are in that
district abounding in trout ; but mines and other works are
beginning to fill much of that country with a population most
destructive to game and fish. The Tweed and its tributaries are
known to all, and have been so often described by abler pens
than mine, that I say nothing of them. Then comes the lakes
and streams of Argyleshire, beautifully situated in a wild, rugged
country, abounding with Cockneys and summer tourists, who
torment the waters and trout to the most unmitigated extent.
Loch Awe will, however, always hold a high name for the large
lake trout, rivalling the pike in size and voracity, but far stronger
and more difficult to catch. When fairly hooked, too, a salmo
ferox of 20 Ib. weight will nearly tow a small fishing coble after him
during his first rush, on finding himself fast and firm on the line.

" Inverness-shire and the west of Eoss-shire and Sutherland
are intersected everywhere by excellent salmon rivers and lakes full
to overflowing of trout and pike. It is a fallacy * to suppose that
pike are detrimental to the sport of the fly fisher, that is, in a
Highland lake where there is depth and space enough for both
kinds of fish to live and flourish. Of course, pike kill thousands
and tens of thousands of small trout, but the fault of most High-
land lakes is that there are too many trout in them, and the fly
fisher works for a month without killing a trout above a pound
weight. Pike keep down this overstock. There are still plenty
and more than plenty of trout remaining in the water, and of a
better size and quality than where they are not thinned. I have

* [A somewhat dangerous statement to make, as the circumstances of
different localities are so different. — ED.]

INTRODUCTION. 7

invariably found this the case, and that I could take a greater weight
of trout in a loch where there are pike than where the trout had
no natural enemies to keep down their daily increasing numbers.
Besides which, though the pike is piscivorous, he is also most
decidedly as omnivorous as a pig or an alderman. A great part
of the food of a pike consists of frogs, leeches, weeds, &c. Young
wild ducks, water hens, coots and even water rats do not come
amiss to him. Like the shark, the pike when hungry swallows
anything and everything that has the misfortune to come within
reach of his murderous jaws.

" If the fact could be ascertained, I would back a salmo ferox
of 10 Ib. weight to kill more trout in a week than a pike of the
same weight would in a month. I never killed a large trout
without finding the remains of other trout within him, sometimes,
too, a size that must have cost him some trouble to swallow. In
fact, I am strongly of opinion that pike should be encouraged in
all large Highland lakes where the trout are numerous and small.
There is no doubt, too, that the large trout, with a due respect to
the Lextalionis, feed on the infant pike as freely as the pike feed
on the young trout.

" There are numberless fine lakes in the interior of the
Northern Counties situated in wild and sequestered spots remote
from roads and tracks, the waters of which the -line of the angler
seldom disturbs ; but all are full of trout, and in many are great
numbers of that excellent fish the char. This fish, however, very
seldom takes the fly, and its presence in a lake is only known by
his autumnal migration from the depths of the water to the
shallow parts along the shore. During the month of October
these migrations of the char generally take place, and they may
then be caught in great numbers by nets. In most lakes they
never take a bait.

" On the north and east of Sutherland there are some excellent
salmon rivers. Amongst the best, if not quite the best, is the
Shin, which flows from the loch of that name.

" In some parts of this county the ascending propensities of
the salmon are most strikingly shown by the determination with

8 INTRODUCTION.

which they pass from river to lake, from lake to burn, and so
gradually ascending the waters till they reach streams at last so
small and shallow that the looker on wonders only how two
salmon can pass in them. Taking advantage of floods and
rising of the burns, they work themselves up shallows and
narrow places where frequently there is scarcely water enough
for the smallest trout to swim in. Having fulfilled their object
of spawning, they drop back during the winter floods to the
larger streams and thence to the sea, where they soon become
reinvigorated and increase in size with the most incredible
rapidity.

" On the Eoss coast between Sutherland and Inverness-shire
there are few streams run into the Eastern Sea. The Beauly is
a noble stream and abounding in magnificent scenery.

" On revient toujours, etc., and above all rivers the Findhorn,
in my estimation, holds the highest place, not only for its fishing
qualities, but for the varied country and beautiful scenery through
which it passes, from the dreary heights of the Monaghleahd
Mountains, where it rises to the flat and fertile plains of Moray-
shire, where it empties itself into the salt water. The scenery
and beauty of the Findhorn for several miles is not equalled in
Scotland.

" I do not know that the Findhorn can be called a first-rate
angling river, for it is too variable and subject to floods and
changes as to depth of water, and though these sudden and unex-
pected risings of the river add to its interest in the eyes of a
looker-on, they militate sadly against the success of the angler,
who has to gather up his tackle and run for his life, or who,
having made up his mind to a week's good fishing, finds the river
either of a deep black or of the colour of pea-soup, and con-
stantly overflowing bank and brae, brought down by some sudden
rainstorm which has fallen on the distant mountains of the
Monaghleahd.

" The Spey is another glorious river, a finer river, indeed, for
salmon than the Findhorn. Indeed, the rent paid for the salmon
fishing at the mouth of the river proves it to be the best supplied

INTRODUCTION. 9

with fish in Scotland. Everything in this matter-of-fact age
brings its real marketable value, and by a simple rule of arith-
metic the number of fish which inhabit each river may almost be
ascertained, as the rent is, of course, proportioned exactly to the
number of salmon which can be caught.

" The Spey is a fine wide stream too, with a great volume of
water, and, though subject like all Highland rivers to floods, is
not liable to such sudden and dangerous risings as its neighbour
the Findhorn."

What would he think of the present system of netting, not
only at the mouths of the rivers (where the stake nets were set in
his day), but along the entire coast line ? The stake nets now in
use are of far superior construction to those then in vogue. The
present ones have frequently attached from the outer end, where
the trap is, a floating wall of netting, with another trap at its
extremity. The net which principally marks the improvement
in salmon catching is the bag net. This consists of a wall 90
yards long and 20 feet deep of 2 -inch mesh.

The land end is usually attached to a rock. Where no rock
is available, a small anchor or other fastening. At the end of
the 90 yards the bag or trap is fixed, again another length of
wall 90 yards long with its trap; not unfrcquently this is
repeated a third time, reaching collectively 300 yards from the
coast. Sometimes only one trap is used, and this may be at the
end of three lengths of wall. As the whole apparatus floats, it
can be set in any depth of water, and an anchor or two is all
that is required to keep the sides of the trap extended.

These nets are set usually about 200 or 300 yards apart,
but the distance varies, depending on the formation of the coast.
I have seen them within a stone's throw of each other.

It may truly be said that the whole coast line for hundreds
of miles is studded with these nets, and how the unfortunate fish
reach the rivers is difficult to understand. If they succeed in
doing so, they are met with the seine ; boats with nets are kept
at the head of the pools ; a watchman is placed at the tail, where

1 0 INTRODUCTION.

the fish can be seen as they pass up over the shallows. On his
giving the signal that a salmon has ascended, the seine is shot
out, and a hundred to one the fish is caught.

The upper waters suffer from poaching, which is carried on
to a greater extent than is generally known. Unfortunately this
nefarious trade is worked also during the spawning season, when
the fish are easily destroyed, but unfit for food.

The thirty-six hours' close time does not apply fairly to all
rivers. For instance, when the netting is allowed for long dis-
tances from the mouth of the river, the thirty-six hours' close
time is insufficient for the fish to reach the open water. The
close time, therefore, should be a receding one ; giving the first
six miles the first thirty- six hours, the second thirty-six hours
would then reach the twelfth mile, and so on. By this plan
running fish would probably be able to pass up.

One Saturday afternoon I arranged with the man in charge
of five nets to go out with him when he examined the bag for
salmon. When I reached his station I found him very dubious
whether he would go at all. " Why not ? " I asked him. " There
is too much wind, and I am thinking there'll be a bit of a sea
on." " Won't you be fined ? " I said. " I'm no' thinking so."
" Then I understand if you cannot take the wall off for the close
time from to-night till Monday on account of the weather being
too rough you won't be fined ? " " That 's so," he answered.
The point — rather a fine one — whether the weather was suffi-
ciently rough to make it impossible to lift the net was left to
this man. No overseer's or inspector's opinion was available or
necessary. This way of working these nets along a stretch of
coast where hundreds of nets are set is certainly not conducive
to the increase of salmon.

I met at Aberdeen an intelligent fish-dealer who had very
decided opinions on the scarcity of salmon, the steady decrease
of which he attributed to two causes. First, the enormous number
of bag nets ; and secondly, the wholesale poaching, particularly
during the spawning time. The quantity of fish he was offered
and declined during this season appeared extraordinary.

INTRODUCTION. 1 1

" Are the upper waters watched ? " I asked. " Oh, yes ! "
he said, " but not thoroughly."

In Ireland poaching is carried on at all seasons and all
times with nets of various sorts, also by poisoning in a wholesale
way by spurge or lime. The fish so destroyed find a ready
market in Manchester. By the uninitiated the effect of the
poison is not easily detected for a couple of days, the appearance
of the fish being practically unchanged, but if the finger is
pressed on the side the dent remains. It is a mooted point
whether these fish are wholesome or not as articles of food.

Trammel netting and small bag nets from the rocky points is
the usual mode of poaching on the west coast.

It seems strange that notwithstanding the numerous Com-
missions that have been started, and the number of scientific men
who have carefully considered this most serious subject (i.e., the
continual falling off in the number of salmon), that practically
nothing has been done. The difficulty can be solved by fairplay
for the fish. How best to secure this is a knotty point where so
many interests are concerned. If the upper and lower pro-
prietors would combine, the first step to improvement would be
started. Poaching might be checked by overseers (taking care
they are reliable) and heavier fines. Poisoning fish ought to be
made a criminal offence.

I have heard it frequently said, and have also seen it in
print, that salmon never take any food during the time they
remain in fresh water. Doubtless it has happened to many,
as it has to myself, that being anxious to procure a salmon,
and having tried almost every fly in your book, without even
moving a fish, worm has been resorted to, and baiting not
with a single worm, but with three or four large ones, success
has followed. The worm is not bolted suddenly and greedily,
but very slowly. I have myself given a fish five or ten minutes
to do so, being careful not to tighten the line during the
process, and wondering at the moment whether enjoyment at
having found such a pleasant mouthful of real food was the cause
of this deliberation. The shrimp also is very sure bait.

12 INTRODUCTION.

A keen fisherman told me a curious incident which happened
to himself. He was using a fly with a double hook, which a
salmon of 9 Ibs. took. The fish made a short quick rush, and
then came straight in like a log of wood, and was pulled out
on the gravel just alive and no more. The hook had one barb in
the upper jaw and the other barb in the lower, the mouth being
closed so tightly that the fish was simply drowned. Within the
mouth and gills was a whole fresh trout 4 in. long, half another,
very much decomposed, and several worms. All this food
had been stopped in the act of being cast out, a circumstance, I
believe, that usually, if not always, takes place on a fish being
hooked, suddenly seized, and possibly when very much startled.

The above circumstances would satisfy most people that food
is taken by salmon when in fresh water. Why they take
the artificial fly, except mistaking it for a shrimp, I cannot say.
The minnow is a good representative of a trout or a fly. The
colley,^ which is very much used in Ireland by poachers as well
as legitimate fishermen, is very deadly.

I may here refer to a river I visited in Yesso, the northern
island of the Japanese group, where the lower three miles was
fished to a scale unknown in England. The time for netting
opened the third week in August and closed the second week in
October, during which time — about seven weeks — the average
season's catch of salmon was 6000 tons. No outside or coast
fishing existed. The fish were left free, and had time to repro-
duce their species without further persecution.

* " Colley," local name for a loach.

MEMOIR.

CHARLES ST JOHN, or, to speak accurately, Charles William George
St John, the author of " Wild Sports of the Highlands," and of
these observations and notes of natural history, was the son of
General the Hon. Frederick St John, who was the second son of
Frederick, second Viscount Bolingbroke. Charles was born 3rd
December 1809. The first account I have of him is from his
schoolfellow and dear friend, a frequent companion in his after
years, and a fellow-student of nature as well as fellow-sportsman.
Mr Thomas Jeans writes to me : —

" My friendship with Charles St John began about the year
1821, when he was first sent to school at Midhurst, in Sussex,
when Dr Bayly was head-master. He might then have been
about eleven years of age. I remember perfectly his first appear-
ance as a ' new boy ' — handsome, fair-haired, quiet, and gentleman-
like. I can see him now, standing near the ponderous ' iron door '
which had just been shut upon him by the porter, and which
separated us from the outer world. My happening to know a
relative of his was our first bond of union, and the similarity of
our tastes cemented it. We became friends at once, and worked
our way up together in the school. Though I was his senior by a

14 MEMOIR.

year or two, he was far ahead of me in all the theory and some of
the practice of ' wild sports.' But it was under the tuition of a
certain old pensioner, who, in virtue of his weekly function in the
school, went by the name of the drill-sergeant, that we both at-
tained to no mean proficiency in spinning for trout and trolling for
pike in the river Arun whenever we could shirk out of bounds on
half-holidays, as well as in setting night-lines artistically for eels.

" Even at that time St John had the zoological bump largely
developed. His box (or scobb, as we used to call it, after the
Winchester fashion) was generally a sort of menagerie — dormice
in the one till, stag-beetles of gigantic size and wonderful cater-
pillars in paper boxes in the other, while sometimes a rabbit, some-
times a guinea-pig, or perhaps a squirrel, was lodged below in a cell
cunningly constructed of the Delphin classics and Ainsworth's
Dictionary. He was scarcely without live-stock of some sort.

" I think he must have left Midhurst after remaining there
about four years, and then I lost sight of him for a time. In 1828
(I think) I found him appointed to a clerkship in the Treasury,
junior to an old schoolfellow of ours, Edward Ricketts, who, years
afterwards, married a sister of Mrs St John's." Mr Jeans speaks
of his life at this time as " somewhat fast : his connections gave
him the entree everywhere (his aunt, Lady Sefton, was then a great
leader), and the result was his giving the Treasury, as he used
himself to say, ' notice to quit/ to prevent the proceedings being
reversed, and he left town. Here is a hiatus in his history, or
rather in my history of him. Ricketts could fill this page." Mr
Ricketts is good enough to recall for me his recollection of his
schoolfellow and fellow-clerk at the Treasury. Their intimacy
began, he says, " while St John was chafing like a caged eagle at
the desk of a Government office." And here Mr Ricketts has some
remarks which I cannot refrain from copying : — " If parents would
but study the happiness and the probable success of their children
rather than their own convenience in getting them off their hands,
they would not commit such a fatal mistake as that of expecting a
high-spirited lad, with our late friend's restless spirit and love of
sport, to settle down to the drudgery of a clerkship. He had

MEMOIR. 1 5

talents, as you know ; he wrote a good hand, and worked with great
rapidity, but his heart was elsewhere, and three or four years
sufficed to prove the attempt an utter failure. During his period-
ical holidays he joined some friends in expeditions to the moors
of the north of Scotland, where he found himself in his proper
element, and whence he could not, or would not, tear himself to
resume a duty which was odious to him, and his connection with
the Treasury, which had begun in (I think) 1829, ceased about the
latter part of 1833, or early in 1834.

Mr Eicketts says St John went little into general society ;
" the formalities of London life were irksome to him, and when,
after he had left London some time, I visited him in his Koss-shire
home, he seemed a far happier man than while writhing under
the restraint of London conventionalities and official routine."

Some of that early aversion for mixed society which Mr
llicketts describes in St John may, I think, be attributed to an
impediment in his speech, which, like all such nervous affections,
was most felt in his intercourse with strangers. It almost dis-
appeared when he was among familiar friends, and with them his
conversation was easy and flowing.

Mr Jeans, after speaking of St John's life as a Treasury clerk,
says : — " I next hear of him settled at Rosehall in Sutherland. The
place was lent him by his cousin, the late Lord. Bolingbroke, and
here he lived a perfectly secluded wild life, having good scope for
improving his experiences in natural history, and a wide range
for indulging his tastes for shooting and fishing."

It was on an expedition from llosehall that St John met Miss
Anne Gibson, to whom he was married in November 1834. Miss
Gibson had some fortune, a commodity in which her husband was
sadly unprovided, and as the lady, with a true wife's devotion,
accommodated herself to her husband's tastes and manner of life,
he was enabled henceforward to live the life of a sportsman and
naturalist in the Highlands, which was only modified when the
necessity of educating a young family induced them to draw near
schools. The St Johns lived at various places rented with these
views, chosen for their picturesque beauties, or capabilities of sport

1 6 MEMOIR.

and opportunities of study of wild animal life. I have heard him
dwell especially on pleasant recollections of Eosehall — of Aldourie
— a charming place of the Tytler family on Loch Ness, and some
others beyond the Moray Firth. But in due time he discovered the
region best suited to his taste and happiness in the "Laigh" of
Moray, a fertile and well-cultivated country, with dry soil and
bright and bracing climate, with wide views of sea and mountain,
within easy distance of mountain sport, in the midst of the game
and wild animals of a low country, and with the coast indented
by bays of the sea and studded with frequent fresh-water lakes, the
haunt of all the common wildfowl and of many of the rarer sorts.
It was in that country, for the most part, that St John spent the
last ten years of his active life, before he was struck by his fatal
malady.

I became acquainted with Charles St John in my autumn
vacation of 1844, while I was Sheriff of Moray. He was then
living at Invererne, below Torres, and I used to shoot sometimes on
an adjoining property. We had some common friends, and messages
of civility had passed between us, but we had not yet met ; when
one day in October I was shooting down the river side, and the
islands in the Findhorn, making out a bag of partridges laboriously.
It was a windy day, and the birds going off wild spoilt my shooting,
which is at best uncertain. While I was on the island, two birds
had gone away wounded into a large turnip-field across the river.
I waded the river after them, and was vainly endeavouring to
recover them with my pointers, when a man pushed through the
hedge from the Invererne side, followed by a dog making straight
for me. There was no mistaking the gentleman — a sportsman all
over, though without any " getting up " for sport, and without a
gun. I waited for him, and on coming up he said he had seen my
birds pitch, and offered to find them for me if I would take up my
dogs. When my pointers were coupled, he called " Grip," and his
companion, a large poodle with a Mephistopheles expression, began
travelling across and across the drills, till suddenly he struck the
scent, and then with a series of curious jumps on all fours, and
pauses between, to listen for the moving of the bird, he made quick

MEMOIR. 1 7

work with bird No. 1, and so with bird No. 2. I never saw so
perfect a dog for retrieving, but he was not handsome.

After this introduction St John and I became frequent com-
panions. T soon found there was something in him beyond the
common slaughtering sportsman ; and he must have discovered that
the old sheriff had some tastes with which he could sympathise.
The remainder of that season we were very much together, and
often took our exercise and sport in company. On one of these

occasions we went together to join a battue at Dunphail ; but the
weather was too bad, and after waiting for some hours without
taking our guns out of their cover, St John and I returned to
Knockomie, a cottage of relations of mine near Torres, who have
made it my second home for many years. We travelled in St
John's dogcart through steady heavy rain. I was well clothed in
a thick topcoat, and he in a pea-jacket of sealskins of his own
shooting, so that there was no suffering from the weather as we

B

1 8 MEMOIR.

drove down through the shelter of the Altyre woods ; and the way
was shortened to me by my companion telling story after story
of sport and adventure, or answering with wonderful precision my,
questions about birds, beasts, and fishes. He stayed with me that
night, and when we were alone after dinner, 1 broached a subject
which had often come into my head since we were so much in
each other's society. Why should he not give the world the
benefit of his fresh enjoyment of sport — his accurate observation
of the habits of animals ? At first he ridiculed the idea. He had
never written anything beyond a note of correspondence — didn't
think he could write, etc. etc. But at length he listened to some
arguments. It was very true he had too much idle time, espe-
cially in winter — nothing he so much regretted as that he was an
idle man. He had some old journals that might be useful. He
could note down every day's observations, too. In short, he would
try his hand on some chapters next winter. And so it came to
pass, that during next winter I was periodically receiving little
essays on mixed sport and natural history, which it was a great
pleasure to me to criticise ; and no one could take the smooth and
the rough of criticism more good-naturedly than St John. As
these chapters gathered size and consistency, it became a question
how to turn them to account, and this was solved by accident.
At that time I was in the habit of writing an article occasionally
for the Quarterly, and I put together one on Scotch sport, using as
my material some of St John's chapters, especially the story of the
Muckle Hart of Benmore. The paper pleased Mr Lockhart. " It
would itself be sufficient " (he said) " to float any number. . . .
Whether the capital journal laid under contribution be your own
or another's I don't know, but everyone will wish to see more of
it." : I received the Editor's letter at Knockomie, and, next day,
the reading of it to St John served for seasoning as we took our
shooting lunch together beside the spring among the whins on the
brae of Blervie. Our course was now plain. I divided the money
produce of the Quarterly article with St John, who rejoiced greatly
in the first money he had ever made by his own exertions ; and, on

* Letter from J. G. Lockhart, 20th September 1845.

HEAD OF THE MUCKLE HAET.

MEMOIR. 19

my next visit to London, I arranged for him the sale of the whole
chapters, the produce of his last winter's industry, which Mr
Murray brought out in the popular volume of " Wild Sports and
Natural History in the Highlands."

St John's life was, I believe, much happier from the occupation
thus supplied. He kept journals more regularly from thence-
forward, and he became an authority to be consulted on all ques-
tions of Scotch sport. He had already become, I may say, the
friend of all his neighbours, and many regretted his change of
abode, which took place two years later.

St John formed acquaintance and commenced a life friendship
with another person while at Invererne, whose tastes and habits
much resembled his own — a good naturalist and accurate observer,
a lover of sport on hill and river and loch, and, curiously, a keeper
of a journal with much more regularity and accuracy than his
friend ever arrived at. This was Captain Gumming, now Sir Alex.
Gordon Gumming of Altyre, with whom St John, during the later
years of his life, when they were brought nearer together in resi-
dence, associated, partook of sport, corresponded, more constantly
and confidentially, perhaps, than with any other.

Unfortunately, St John was not in the habit of preserving his
correspondents' letters, and I am thus able to give only one letter
from Captain Gumming, which may have been in his friend's mind
when he contrasts the salmon-fisher of the Findhorn with the
gentle angler of the lower pools at p. 222, " Sport in Moray."

Sir Alexander's letter contains a wonderfully intelligible
account of a morning's fishing. The scene is on the river
Findhorn, above the junction of the Divie. Rannoch is the
name of a spot where there is a " brig of ae hair," a single
log thrown across the torrent.

From Captain A. P. G. GUMMING to Mr ST JOHN, June 20, 1848.

MY DEAR ST JOHN, — Do you remember saying a salmon was as good
as lost if he went over the Ess on the Findhorn at Relugas 1 A strong
and active fish played me a trick last week, and contradicted your idea,
by taking me down from Rannoch over the Fall as far as the Pool above

20 MEMOIR.

the Divie junction. The night had been stormy, with heavy rain, and
although I expected "she" would "grow" in the course of the day, I
thought that by an early start I might get a few hours' fishing before
the water came down, especially as fish very often take greedily just before
a grow. I was at the river by 4 A.M., and commenced at Rannoch
(Randolph's Leap). I found the water much as I left " her " the night
before, small and clear, the only chance of fish being just in the white
broken water at the throats of streams, or in the deep holes amongst the
rocks. Rannoch is fishable only from one small ledge or bench, about
two feet square, and 25 feet above the level of the water, to which bench
you must scramble down the face of the rock, and from this spot you
fish the whole pool, beginning with the line as the fly comes off the bar
of the reel, and letting out yard by yard till the fly is working in the
" spoots " or narrow rapids, 80 to 90 feet down the stream. If you
hook him you must play and kill him in the pool, if possible, your gillie
clipping him on a small bed of gravel down below your feet, it being
impossible to follow him if he takes down the water, from the small two-
feet-square ledge, without first ascending to the footpath, and redescend-
ing to the bed of the river; this you cannot manage with a fish on,
owing to trees and projecting rocks. The pool is fished from the right
bank.

Well, I rose him at my feet almost at the first throw, to a small fly
about half an inch long ; * he came deep and shy three times, and re-
fused to take it or any other. I guessed him at about 1 7 Ibs. Leaving him
to his own reflections, after making an appointment with him for a later
hour, I tried the pools above, hurrying along to the best spots in antici-
pation of the water rising. I worked till eight o'clock, keeping on the
same fly described before. I had more than average sport, killing four
good new-run fish, viz., one of 12 Ibs., one 10 Ibs., and two of 9 Ibs. At
eight, the water beginning to grow, I reeled up, and rushed down to
Rannoch to show my early friend another fly ; but "the water having
fairly commenced to grow, I put on a fly above two inches long,f and
the tippet being triple gut, I, by an interposition of Providence, put on
a triple casting line. Having cautiously descended to my stand, I showed

* Black floss silk body with golden orange tag, gold cord and silver speel,
claret hackle with jay at shoulder ; wing mixture of good mottled fibres and a gold
crest, head yellow wool and tail of crest and fibres.

t Body yellow pig's wool, rough Spey hackle, and bright full wing.

MEMOIR. 21

it to him at once ; he made small bones of it this time, and rushing up
like a bull-dog, or like one of your lovely peregrines, took the fly greedily.
I just let him feel I was at the other end of the gear, and knew in-
stinctively that the good steel was well into something firm. At first
he seemed not quite to realise the situation, and after a few sulky and
dangerous shakes of the head took to sailing steadily up and down the
pool, once or twice approaching the rapids below, but turning again by
gentle persuasion ; these tactics he continued for nearly an hour, my
man waiting for him on the gravel below, and out of my sight. By
this time the effects of the last night's rain became fully apparent, the
still, dark pool below my feet had turned into a seething pot, without
a quiet corner for the fish to rest in, and the water had risen nearly
twenty-four inches above its size when I hooked him. The upshot was,
he shot down the narrows, and went rolling heels over head down the
foaming " Meux and Co.'s Entire " (this being the usual colour of our
summer floods). To stop him was impossible ; 1 held 011 above the rapid
till I thought my good Forrest rod would have gone at the hand, and
certainly the fine single gut I had on earlier would have parted with
half the strain.*

All I could do was to give him what line he required until he found
a resting-place behind some rock ; this he did after rattling off fifty
yards of line. Waiting some minutes till he seemed quiet, I threw off
some ten yards more line, and turning the top of the rod up stream, I
darted it down to my man 011 the gravel below, having cautioned him
not to alarm the fish by letting the line get taut. To scramble up the
rocks and down again to the gravel bed, to resume possession of my
rod, was two or three minutes' work, and just as I seized hold of it,
the fish, having ventured from his shelter, was, in spite of his efforts,
hurried down at racing pace, taking more line than I liked, while I
followed, crawling and leaping along some impossible-looking country,
such as I would not have faced in cold blood.

By this time he had nearly reached the Ess or fall, and all seemed

* Memo, en parent/Una. — I once asked several old sportsmen what weight was
on the line at the very heaviest strain you could put on with rod in hand, as when
holding on like grim death to an insubordinate fish, the end of the line being
attached to the hook of a spring balance — i.e., what weight the balance would
register. One man guessed 35 Ibs., another, laughing at him, said he would bet
20 Ibs. to be nearer the mark ; none guessed less than 15 Ibs. ! The fact is, you
cannot, with the best and strongest tackle, draw out more than 3 or 4 Ibs.

22 MEMOIR.

lost. I do not think lie really intended going over ; for when he felt him-
self within the influence of the strong smooth water, he tried his best to
return, but in vain. Over he went like a shot, and long ere I could get
round some high rocks and down to the lower part of the fall, I had 80
or 90 yards of line out, and to follow him farther on this side of the
water was not possible, owing to the steep rock rising beside the stream.
To add to the embarrassment of my position, I found, on raising the point
of my rod, that in going over the fall the fish had passed beneath some
arch deep under water, thus making my case appear very hopeless. But,
determined not to give it up yet, I sent my man up to the house of
Relugas, where he found an old three-pronged dung fork and a garden
line, with which we managed to construct a grapnel ; and at the second
throw in, I got hold of the line below the sunken arch ; then fastening
it to my right hand, I made my man throw the whole line off the reel
and through the rings, and having drawn the remainder of the line
through the sunken arch, and clear of the impediment, I formed a coil,
and with my left hand pitched the end of it up to him, when he passed
it through the rings again from the top of the rod, tixed it to the axle
of the reel, and handed me down the rod to where I stood. From the
long line out and the heavy water, I could not tell whether the fish was
on or not, but the line looked greatly chafed all along.

I now tried the only plan to end the business. Leaving my man
holding the rod, I went to a bridge some distance up the river, and
having crossed to the other side and come down opposite him, he pitched
the rod over to me. I felt that, if he was still on, I was sure of him, and
reeling steadily up the 80 yards which were out, I followed down to the
big round pool below, where, to my surprise, I became aware that he
was still on. He made but a feeble resistance, and after a tight of two
hours and forty minutes, we got the clip into as gallant a fish as ever
left the sea — weight, 19 J Ibs., and new run. The last hour and a half
was in a roaring white flood. The fly was, as you may imagine, well
" chawed up."

The neighbourhood of Invererne to the basin of the Findhorn
— the resort of innumerable wildfowl; the sandhills of Culbin
so curious, almost so marvellous ; the " Black Forest," stretching
away behind Brodie and Dalvey ; the " Old Bar," where the seals
love to sun themselves on the sand ; the mouth of the Muckle-
burn, the favourite haunt of the otter — made it a most desirable

MEMOIR. 23

residence for a naturalist and sportsman like St John. It was
there he filled the bag of various game for me which he describes
in "Wild Sports" (p. 27*7), and which he announced to me
almost in the same terms in a letter I have still preserved. It
was from Invererne at a later time he wrote to me — " I can
soon make out a chapter for every month of the year, in the
shape of letter or journal, so as to form a volume," an intention
which he partially carried out under the title of " Field Notes of
a Naturalist," and the materials for which, on a more complete
scale, are comprised in " Sport in Moray."

It was at Invererne that he first took into his service old
Eennie as a keeper, who figures in his books arid notes as
" Donald." Some of the qualities he ascribes to Donald are
imaginary, or belonged to some predecessor of Rennie, perhaps a
Sutherland Highlander. But the old man has some of " Donald's"
characteristics strongly developed. To shoot flying was not much
in his way ; his master could do that pretty well for himself.
He was no dog-breaker either. I fear he preferred a dog who
could help to kill as well as find game. But he had some
countervailing merits in his master's eyes. He was well ac-
quainted with the habits of wildfowl, and could take you up to
swans or wild-geese when the ground seemed impossible. The
otters were his own children ; he could tell you their outgoings
and incomings as if by intuition. Then he was patient of cold
and wet, and fatigue, and long watching, and was a most useful
slave, if not a director of sport. He has fallen into evil days
since his master's death. He has only occasional employment,
and is apt sometimes to forget a march in pursuit of some
favourite chase. 1 am sure the gentlemen of Moray will not be
too severe on the peccadilloes of St John's old " Donald."

I think it was at Whitsunday 1847 that St John moved
his household to a little villa beside Nairn, where he had the
advantage again of friendly neighbours on both sides. It was from
that abode that he became so well acquainted with the mosses
and lochs about Lochlee,^ where Harry shot his first wild goose.

* [Loch Loy on the maps. — ED.]

24 MEMOI&

In 1848 and 1849 he spent some time in Edinburgh,
making excursions from thence to Newcastle on the one hand,
and into Sutherland on the other. From his early residence at
Kosehall, Sutherland had always interest with St John. But
no one could live an open-air life on the coast of Moray without
being attracted powerfully to the most picturesque outline of the
Sutherland shore. The country was then little known. Its
mountains, seen across the great firth, are most peculiar and
picturesque in outline, suggesting ideas of great insulated moun-
tains and precipices, of different structure from the continuous
ranges of our midland highlands. There were rumours, too, of
eagles, land and water eagles, now exterminated elsewher-e, still
holding their ancient reign there, and it was known that the line
of limitation of the breeding of several birds of passage ran
through the northern peninsula, which gave it much additional
interest with a naturalist who studied and desired to collect
eggs as well as birds. , All these things were inducements with
St John, and led to his recording his wanderings across the
Moray Firth, in two pretty volumes, which, for some reasons not
worth pointing out, have not been so popular as his earlier work.
One chapter of that book — a vivid description of hill sport in
winter — forms the last chapter of " Sport in Moray ; " another,
without date, but which seems to embody his recollection of life
at Kosehall, I have been induced to add as an appendix to this
Memoir. In the autumn of 1849 he established his family at
" The College " beside Elgin — a most convenient and pleasant
residence for a sportsman with a family to educate. The house
was large enough, and there was a big wild garden with some
great old trees and surrounded by an old ivy-grown wall, which
served as a secure retreat for the pets of himself and his boys.
There is a pleasant society in and round the old cathedral city,
embracing some men of science and students of nature, with
whom St John soon became a favourite. The children had the
advantage of good schools ; and for sport and the study of
the habits of animals, was there not the Loch of Spynie and the
rocks of Covesea, where the peregrine breeds ? St John's

MEMOIR. 25

enjoyment of his Elgin residence was much increased by his
friend and companion in sport, Captain Gordon Gumming, or
later, Major Gordon Gumming, having a house in the neighbour-
hood.

His life at Elgin was indeed, I believe, very happy. His
letters were full of active pursuits, with now a fair mixture of
literary work. All his talents were turned to account. No walk
or drive but furnished a note on his favourite study. He no longer
complained that he was an idle man.

I sometimes visited him at " The College," and used to admire,
perhaps a little to envy, his manner of living among his children.
The boys were the constant companions of his sport when school
permitted, and sometimes the schoolmaster was forgotten when the
car came to the door to take papa and Eennie to the Loch. Then,
on return, there were the contents of the game-bag to examine
— rare specimens to note, and sometimes to preserve and stuff after
Mr Hancock's directions, who was a great friend and ally of old
and young. In the evening the drawing-room table was a pretty
sight. Some rare bird, or if no rarity offered, a good, handsome,
old blackcock was displayed en pose for the artists, and father and
children made studies in water-colours of a head, a claw, or a tail
of the fine bird. Without pretending to much skill in art, St
John drew easily and coloured dexterously what was placed
before him, and he made all his children able to do the same.
I remember with what pride he showed me the journals sent
him by Harry on his first voyage in Admiral Seymour's ship,
where the young middy described the places he visited as
well as he could, and supplied defects by views drawn on the
margin.

St John spent some happy years at Elgin, and his friends
looked forward to many days of life and enjoyment for one so
vigorous and active, and of most temperate and healthy habits ; but
this was not to be. He had been for a long time subject to violent
attacks of nervous headache, quite disabling him for any exertion ;
but these were of short duration, and we little thought that they
might be symptomatic of some cerebral affection, as it seems they

26 MEMOIR.

were. He had one of the worst of those overpowering headaches
in the beginning of December 1853, but in a few days he had
apparently thrown off' the disease, and on Tuesday, 6th December,
was on his way out to shoot when he was struck down by paralysis
of the whole left side. He was carried home quite powerless,
assisted by Major W. Pitcairn Campbell, 23rd Fusiliers, but retain-
ing his senses entire. In the midst of overwhelming grief for
such a calamity, Mrs St John and the whole family did what their
strength allowed to alleviate his sufferings, but it required a man's
strength to move the helpless sufferer, constantly requiring change
of posture ; and he owed much of what rendered life supportable,
for some weeks, to the untiring and tender care of his friend
Major Gordon Gumming.

He never recovered the use of his limbs, but his health was so
far restored as to allow of his trying a change of air and scene.
He moved to Brighton, and afterwards to Southampton, without
deriving much benefit from medical treatment or change of climate.
His heart still clung to the scene of his youthful sport, and to
the last he indulged the hope of returning " to some place between
Spey and Ness," but in vain. He died at Woolston, near South-
ampton, on the 12th July 1856.

He was buried in the Southampton cemetery. At his feet,
within his coffin, was placed, by his own desire, the skull of " Leo,"
a favourite retriever, " Grip's " successor.

Of the many amiable qualities which endeared him to his
family and his personal friends I must not speak. I may be
allowed to point out for imitation the extreme care and accuracy
of his observations of nature — a rare merit — and his guarded and
simple statements of the results. His taste for rural pleasures,
his love of sport, and his natural unaffected style, will long endear
his memory to naturalists.

C. INNES.

SOUTH COLLEOK, ELGIN.

LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

IN my sporting excursions I frequently prefer being alone and
independent of either friend or keeper ; not from any disinclina-
tion to the society of my fellow-men — far from it — but from a
liking to watch and observe the habits and proceedings of many of
the living animals of the country. Now, one's friend may become
bored by being carried off from his shooting, and being hampered
by the movements of another person whose attention for the time
being is taken up in following some bird or beast not included in
the game-book, and therefore not deemed worthy of notice during
the shooting season. If my own larder or that of my friend is in
want of replenishing, I can fill it as well and quickly as most
people ; but at other times I like to take my shooting quietly.
In deer-stalking the solitary sportsman has often great advantages,
though his enjoyment of the sport is much enhanced by the
thought that he has some friend, some " fidus Achates," to whom
he can relate the incidents of the day, and who, following the same
pursuits, will enjoy and appreciate the account of the pains and
fatigues he has undergone before bringing down the noble animal
whose horns he exhibits in triumph. Much of my deer-stalking
time was spent alone, or at most with no companionship save that
of an ancient and experienced Highlander, or a chance visitor —
some travelling laird or sportsman — who was as glad to receive as

30

LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

I was to give pro vend and rest for himself and horses. From
these circumstances I got into the habit of sketching off an account
Of my day's wanderings, when they had been of that kind that I
felt I might say to myself, " Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit."
. I had more than once seen in a particular corrie, or not far from
it, a remarkably fine stag : his horns, though not peculiarly long,
were heavy and large, with ten points well and evenly set on, of a
dark colour, and the points as white as ivory. The animal himself
was evidently of very great size and age, and in fine condition.

He lived quite alone, and did not seem to associate with any of
the other deer who frequented that district, although I once saw
him rise and trot off, warned by the movement of a herd of hinds ;
and at another time he rose unexpectedly on my firing at two
stags in a corrie ; still, on neither of these occasions, nor at any other
time, did he appear to be lying in company with the other deer,
although not above half a mile from them, nor did he join them
in their flight when moved. Instead of this he invariably trotted
off sulkily ; and if I chanced to fall in with his track again, it was

LIFE AT ROSEHALL. 31

still solitary, and speeding in a direct course over bog and hill
to some far-off mountain glen or corrie. The shepherds, who
generally gave me notice of any particularly fine stag they might
see in their rounds, distinguished this one by a Gaelic name signi-
fying the big red stag, as, besides his other attributes, his colour
was of a peculiarly bright red. Donald and I had made an
unsuccessful raid or two into " the red stag's " country, some
unforeseen circumstance always warning him of our neighbour-
hood too soon ; besides which he had a troublesome habit of
suddenly rising in the most unaccountable manner from some
unexpected corner or hollow. We might examine long and care-
fully the whole face of a hill, and having made ourselves perfectly
sure that nothing larger than a mountain hare could be concealed
on its surface, up would rise " the red stag " from some trifling
hollow, or from behind some small hillock, and without looking
to the right or left, off he would go at his usual trot, till we lost
him in the distance.

Another time, after we had beat, as we imagined, a whole
wood, so that we were convinced that neither deer nor roe could
have been passed over, up would get the stag out of some clump
of larch or birch, apparently scarcely big enough to hold a hare,
or else he would rise at the very feet of one of the beaters, and
though not above a hundred yards from the corner where I was
posted he always managed to turn back, perhaps almost running
over some man who had no gun ; but he invariably escaped being
shot at, excepting on one occasion, when I placed a friend who
was with me near a pass by which the stag sometimes left a
favourite wood. I had stationed the shooter at the distance of
half a mile from the wood, as the deer was always most careful
of himself, and most suspicious of danger, when he first left the
cover. On this occasion, according to my friend's account, the
great beast had trotted quickly and suddenly passed him at eighty
yards distance, and took no notice of the barrels discharged at his
broadside, though fired by a very good shot, and out of a first-rate
Manton gun that carried ball like a ritie. My friend could not
account for missing him ; but missed he evidently was.

32

LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

I determined one day to start off alone in pursuit of this stag,
and to pay no attention to any other deer I might see during my
excursion. Donald's orders were to meet me at a well known rock,
about eight miles from home, the next day at two o'clock ; my
intention being, in the event of my not returning the same night,
to work my way to a distant shepherd's house, and there to sleep.
Donald had directions as to the line by which he was to come,
that he might not disturb one or two favourite corries; and he
was also to bring a setter and my shooting apparatus, as I took

with me only a single-barrel rifle and a few bullets. I did not
take " Bran," as, being alone, I could not be quite sure that he
would not be in my way when getting up to the deer, if I should
find him ; but 1 took a dog of a very different kind — a powerful
bull-dog, who was well accustomed to deer-stalking, and who would
lie down for an hour together if commanded, without moving
an inch.

On leaving the house at daybreak, or at least before the sun
had risen, I struck off in a straight line through the woods, till,

LIFE AT ROSEHALL. 33

having got through the whole cover, I sat myself down on the
top of what was called the Eagle's Craig, and turned, for the
first time that morning, to the east to look at the sun, which was
now rising in its utmost glory and brightness — a glorious sight,
and one that loses not its' interest though seen each returning day,
particularly when viewed from the lonely places either of land or
sea. Below me lay a great extent of pine-wood, concealing the
house and the cultivated land around it, with the exception of a
glimpse caught here and there of the bright green meadow which
formed the banks of the river. The river itself was visible
through many openings, and where the outline of the trees was
lower than in other places. Beyond the river rose a black moor-
land, which, growing gradually higher and higher, terminated in
mountains with a most varied and fantastic outline of peaks and
precipices, the stony sides of which were lighted up by the rising
sun, and exhibited a strong contrast to the deep colour of the
hills below them, covered with dark heather, and not yet reached
by the sun's rays.

On the other side the ground was of quite a different
character. Immediately on leaving the wood the country for
some distance had a dreary, cold look, being covered not with
heather, but with a kind of gray grass, called there deer's grass,
which grows only in cold swampy ground. Here and there this
was varied by ranges of gray stone and rock, and dotted with
numerous lochs. In the distance to the west I could see the
upper part of a favourite rocky corrie, the sun shining brightly
on its gray rocks. A little to my right the fir- woods terminated,
but on that side, between me and the river, of which every bend
and reach was there in full view, were numerous little hillocks
overgrown with birch trees, old and rugged. Here and there,
amongst these hillocks, rose a great round gray rock, and the
whole of this rough ground was intersected with bright green
glades. Some three miles up the river a blue line of smoke
ascended perpendicularly in the still morning, the chimney it
came from being concealed by a group of birch- trees.

I looked carefully with my glass at all the nooks and grassy

c

34 LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

places to see if any deer were feeding about them, but could see
nothing but two or three old roe. A moment after a pair of
young roe walked quietly out of some concealed hollow, and
after gazing about a short time and having a game of romps on
the top of a hillock, were joined by their mother, and then all
three came into the woods at the foot of the craig where I was
sitting. The grouse were calling to each other in all directions,
and every now and then an old cock-bird would take a short fly,
crowing, to some stone or hillock, where he stood and sunned
himself. I was struck just then by the curious proceedings of
a mountain-hare, who had been feeding about two hundred yards
from me. She suddenly began to show symptoms of uneasiness
and fear, taking short runs and then stopping, and turning her
ears towards the hill-side behind her. I soon saw the cause of
her alarm in a beautiful marten cat ; the latter, however, having
probably already made her morning meal, took little notice of the
hare, but came with quiet leaps straight towards me. As I was
well concealed amongst the gray fragments of rock which covered
the top of the craig, and which were exactly the same colour as
the clothes I was dressed in, the little animal did not see me.
When about thirty yards off she suddenly stopped and looked in
my direction, having evidently become aware, through some of
her fine senses, of the vicinity of an enemy. She offered me a
fair shot, and, well aware of the quantity of game killed by these
animals, I sent a rifle ball right into her yellow chest as she sat
upright with her head turned towards me.

But time advanced, so I delayed no longer, and started off in
a westerly direction. Many a weary mile did I tramp that day
without seeing anything but grouse and an occasional hare.
Nevertheless, I saw many fresh tracks of red deer ; particularly
crossing one mossy piece of ground, where there appeared to have
been at least twenty or thirty deer, and amongst them one or two
large stags. In one place I saw a solitary track of a noble stag,
but it was two or three days old. I judged that the herd whose
tracks I saw had a good chance of being in or about a corrie, of
which I should get a view from the next height ; but after a

LIFE AT ROSEHALL. 35

long and tiresome survey of the ground I could see no living
creature, excepting a heron, who was standing in his usual dis-
consolate attitude on a stone in the burn that ran out of the
corrie, adding by his very presence to the solitude of the scene.
" I don't understand where these deer can be," was my internal
ejaculation, " but here they are not ; so come on, good dog."
Another and another height did I pass over, and many a glen
did I scan inch by inch till my eyes ached with straining through
the glass. Nothing could I see, and I began to think to myself
that as it was past two and the shepherd's house was some three
hours' walk off, I had better turn in that direction ; so slanting
my course a little to the north, I pulled my plaid round me and
walked on. In deer-stalking, as much as in the everyday
pursuits of life, the old adage holds good —

credula vitam
Spes fovet ;

and this said hope carries the weary stalker over many a long
mile. I came in half an hour to a large extent of heather-
covered ground, interspersed with a great number of tumulus-
shaped hillocks. I was looking carelessly over these, when my
eye was suddenly attracted by a red-coloured spot on one of the
mounds. I turned the glass upon it, and at once saw that it was
a large bright-coloured stag with fine antlers, and altogether an
animal worth some trouble. He was in a very difficult situation
to approach. He commanded a complete view of the face of the
hill opposite to him and over the summit of which I was
looking, and I was astonished he had not observed me, not-
withstanding all my care. As the wind blew, I could not
approach him from the opposite direction, even if I had time to
get round there before he rose ; and I knew that once on foot to
feed, his direction would be so uncertain amongst the mounds
that my chance would be small.

After a short survey I started off at my best pace to the
right, thinking that from the nature of the ground I might
succeed in getting into the valley unobserved ; and once there

36 LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

by taking advantage of some hillock, I should have a tolerable
chance of approaching him. After what appeared to me a long
tramp, I came to a slight rise of the shoulder of the hill. Beyond
this was a hollow, by keeping in which I hoped to get down
unobserved. It was already past three, but the stag had not yet
moved ; so, keeping the tops of his horns in view. I began to
crawl over the intervening height. At two or three places
which I tried, I saw that I could not succeed. At last I came
to a more favourable spot, but I saw that it still would not do,
however well the dog behaved, and a capital stalker he was,
imitating and following every movement of mine, crouching when
I crouched, and crawling when I crawled. I did not wish to
leave him quite so far from the deer, so I made another cast,
and this time found a place over which we both wriggled
ourselves quite unseen. Thank heaven ! was my exclamation, as
I found myself in a situation where I could stand upright again.
Few people excepting deer-stalkers know the luxury of standing
upright, after having wormed oneself horizontally along the
ground for some time. There were the horns with their white
tips still motionless, excepting when he turned back his head to
scratch his hide, or knock off a fly. I now walked forward
without stooping till I was within three or four hundred yards
of him, when I was suddenly pulled up by finding that there was
no visible manner of approaching a yard nearer. The last
sheltered mound was come to ; and although these mounds from
a distance looked scattered closely, when I got amongst them I
found they were two or three rifle-shots apart at the nearest.
There was one chance still : a rock or rather stone lay about
eighty yards from the stag, and it seemed that I might make use
of this as a screen so as, if my luck was great, to get at the
animal. I took off my plaid, laid it on the ground, and ordered
the dog to lie still on it ; then buttoning my jacket tight, and
putting a piece of cork, which I carried for the purpose, into the
muzzle of my rifle to prevent the dirt getting into it, I started in
the most snake-like attitude that the human frame would admit
of. I found that by keeping perfectly flat, and not even

LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

37

looking up once, I could still get on unobserved. Inch by inch
I crawled ; as I neared the stone my task was easier, as the
ground sank a little and the heather was longer. At last I
reached the place, and saw the tips of his horns not above eighty
yards from me. I had no fear of losing him now ; so, taking
out the cork from my rifle, I stretched my limbs one by one, and
prepared to rise to an attitude in which I could shoot ; then,
pushing my rifle slowly forward, I got the barrel over the stone
unperceived, and rose very gradually on one knee. The stag
seemed to be intent on watching the face of the opposite hill,
and, though I was partially exposed, did not see me ; his attitude

was very favourable, which is seldom the case when a stag is
lying down ; so, taking a deliberate aim at his shoulder, I was on
the point of firing, when he suddenly saw me, and jumping up,
made off as hard as he could. He went in a slanting direction,
and before he had gone twenty yards I fired. I was sure that I
was steady on him, but the shot only seemed to hurry his pace ;
on he went like an arrow out of a bow, having showed no
symptom of being hurt beyond dropping his head for a single
moment.

I remained motionless in despair ; a more magnificent stag I
had never seen, and his bright red colour and white-tipped horns
showed me that he was the very animal I had so often seen and

38 LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

wished to get. He ran on without slackening his pace for at least
a hundred yards, then suddenly fell with a crash to the ground,
his horns rattling against the stones. I knew he was perfectly
dead, so, calling the dog, ran up to him. The stag was quite
motionless, and lay stretched out where he fell. I found on open-
ing him that the ball had passed through the lower part of his
heart — a wound I should have imagined sufficient to have deprived
any animal of life and motion instantaneously. But I have shot
several deer through the heart, and have observed that when hit
low they frequently ran from twenty to eighty yards. If, however,
the ball has passed through the upper part of the heart, or has
cut the large blood-vessels immediately above it, death has been
instantaneous, the animal dropping without a struggle.

Having duly admired and examined the poor stag, not without
the usual compunction at having put an end to his life, I set to
work, bleeding and preparing him for being left on the hill till the
next day, secure from attacks of ravens and eagles ; then, having
taken my landmarks so as to be sure of finding him again, I
started on my march to the shepherd's house, looking rather
anxiously round at the increasing length of my shadow and the
diminished height of the sun ; as I had to pass some very boggy
ground with which I was not very well acquainted. I had not
gone a quarter of a mile, however, when I saw the shepherd him-
self making his way homewards. I gave a loud whistle to catch
his attention, and having joined him, I took him back to show
the exact place where the stag was lying, to save myself the
trouble of returning the next day. Malcolm was rather an ally
of mine, and his delight was great at seeing the stag.

" 'Deed aye, sir ; it's just the muckle red stag hiinsel' ;
mony a time I've seen the bonny beast. Save us ! how red his
pile is ! "

" Yes, he is a fine beast, Malcolm ; and you must bring your
gray pony for him to-morrow. I must have the head and one
haunch down to the house ; take the rest to your mother ; I
daresay she can salt it."

I knew pretty well that this good lady must have had some

LIFE AT KOSEHALL. 39

experience in making red deer hams, unless Malcolm was very
much slandered by his neighbours ; nevertheless, he had promised
me not to poach on my ground, and knowing that I trusted quite
to his honour, I believe that he neither did so himself nor allowed
any one else to do so.

" You are ower good, your Honour ; and the mither will be
glad of a bit venison ; it's a long time now since I killed a deer."

" When was the last, Malcolm ? " I asked.

" Ou, mony a day sine, sir ; but, to tell the truth, it is only
yesterday since I fired at one."

" And where was that, Malcolm ? "

" Why, if your Honour wants to know, and I am sure you will
do no ill turn to a lad for taking a shoot, I'll just tell you."

I could not help smiling at Malcolm's describing himself as a
lad. He stood six feet three inches without his shoes, and a
perfect giant in every proportion, but strong and active withal,
and a capital stalker, being able to wind his great body about
through moss and heather in a manner that was quite marvellous.
Malcolm's account, then, was, that a shepherd on an adjoining
property, or rather on one divided from where we were by a long
lake, had asked him to come up some evening with his gun to
" fleg " some deer that had been destroying his little crop of oats.
Well, Malcolm had gone ; and the evening before T met him he
had fired in the dusk at a stag with a handful of large slugs ; the
deer was hit and crippled, but had thrown out the collie dogs
which had pursued him by taking to the water and apparently
swimming the loch. If he had managed to cross he must be on
my side of it, and I might by chance fall in with him on my
return home the next day in some of the burns and glens through
which I should have to walk. I did not blame Malcolm much,
knowing the mischief done by deer to the shepherd's little crops ;
besides which the ground where he had shot this stag was not
preserved or used as a forest by the owner.

We had a weary walk, though enlivened by Malcolm's con-
versation. Without his company and guidance I should have had
some difficulty in finding my way through the rough ground over

40 LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

which we had to pass. The night, too, had come on quite dark
before we reached the shealing.

On entering I was much struck by the group which we saw by
the light of several splinters of a bog-fir laid on stone. Malcolm's
old father, a man whose years numbered at least fourscore, was
reading a chapter of the Bible in Gaelic to the rest of his family,
which consisted of his wife, a woman of nearly equal age to him-
self, but hale, neat, and vigorous, and of a sister and brother of
Malcolm's ; the former a peculiarly pretty, though somewhat
extensive damsel; and the latter a giant like Malcolm himself,
equally good-looking, and equally respected in his own rank of life.
The old man, having looked off his book for a moment, without
pausing in his reading, continued his chapter. Following Malcolm's
example, I took off rny cap, and sat down on a chest in the room,
and though, of course, not understanding a word of what was read,
I was struck by the appearance of real devotion and reverence
of the whole group, and looked on with feelings of interest and
respect till he came to the end of a somewhat lengthy chapter.
This finished, the old man, resting his head on his hands, which his
long grey hair entirely covered, uttered a short prayer in the same
language. The moment this was done he handed the Bible to his
daughter, who, wiping it with her apron, deposited it in a chest.
I was then welcomed with great kindness, and preparations were
made for Malcolm's and my supper, which consisted of tea, oatcake,
eggs, and a part of a kippered trout, caught in a stream running
out of the large loch, and which when alive must have weighed
at least twelve pounds ; such cream and milk, too, as are met with,
or at any rate enjoyed, only in the Highlands. With real polite-
ness the old people talked to me but little during the meal, seeing
that I was tired and hungry ; but over the glass of capital toddy
which succeeded the tea I had many a question to answer respect-
ing the killing of the stag, etc. The old lady spoke very little
English, but understood it well enough. The old shepherd listened
with great interest, the more so from having been a somewhat
famous stalker in his own time, and now a great lamenter of the
good old time when deer and black cattle were more plentiful,

LIFE AT KOSEHALL. 41

and sheep comparatively few to what they are in the present
day.

Before the earliest grouse-cock had shaken his plumage and
called his mate from her heather couch, I had left my sleep-
ing-place in the building that did duty for a barn, where deep in
the straw, and wrapped in my plaid, I had slept sound as a deer-
stalker, and I fancy no person sleeps more soundly. I had
preferred going to roost in the clean straw to passing the night
within the house, knowing by former experience that Malcolm's
shealing was tenanted by myriads of nocturnal insects, which, like
the ancient Britons, " feri hospitibus," would have left me but
little quiet during the night. The last time I had slept there,
all the fleas in the shealing, " novitatis avidi," had issued out and
fallen on the body of the unlucky stranger. Tempted by the
clean and fresh appearance of the good lady's sheets, I had trusted
my tired limbs to their snowy whiteness, when, sallying forth from
every crevice arid every corner, the legion of insects had hopped
on me to enjoy the treat of a supper of English blood. The
natives of these places seem quite callous to everything of the
kind.

To continue, however. After making good use of the burn
that rippled along within fifty yards of the house, and having
eaten a most alarming quantity of the composition called porridge,
I sallied forth alone. Malcolm and his brother would fain have
accompanied me, but the latter had to attend some gathering of
sheep in a different direction, and Malcolm was obliged to go
for the stag killed yesterday. He therefore only walked a few
hundred yards up the first hill with me, in order to impress well
on my recollection the different glens and burns he wished me to
look at on my way to the place of rendezvous with old Donald.
The sun was but a little distance above the horizon when I gained
the summit of a tolerably long and steep ascent immediately
behind Malcolm's house. A blackcock or two rose wild from
some cairn of stones or hillock, where they had been enjoying
the earliest rays of the sun, and flew back over my head to take
shelter in the scattered birch thickets near the shealing ; and

42 LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

here and there a pack of grouse rose, alighting again before they
had flown a hundred yards, as if fully understanding that grouse
shooting was not the order of the day, and strutting along with
their necks stretched up, seemed to care little for my presence.
The ring-ousel flitted from rock to rock, uttering its wild and
sweet note. Truly there is great enjoyment gained by the early
riser; everything in nature has a pleasant aspect, and seems
happy and thankful to see the light of another sun.

The great mountain to the west looked magnificent as its gray
corries and cliffs were lighted up by the morning rays. A noble
pile of rock and heather is that mountain, and well named Ben
Mhor, or the Big Mountain — not a triton amongst minnows, but
a tritori amongst tritons. The golden eagle, to add grandeur to
the scene, was sweeping through the sky high above me, and
apparently eyeing my canine companion with mingled curiosity
and appetite. Once or twice in his circles he came so near that
I was half inclined to send a rifle-ball at him, but as often as I
stopped my walk with this intention, the noble bird wheeled off
again, and at last, remembering his breakfast hour was past, flew
off in a straight line at a great height towards the loch to the
north of us, where he probably recollected having seen some
dead or sickly sheep during his flight homewards the evening
before.

I had several hours to spare before the time of meeting
Donald, so I diverged here and there, wherever I thought it likely
I should find deer, and then kept a northerly course in order to
look at some burns and grassy ground near the loch, according to
Malcolm's advice. The loch itself was bright and beautiful, and
the small islands on it looked like emeralds set in silver. With
my glass I could distinguish eight or nine wild geese, as they
ruffled the water in their morning gambols, having probably just
returned from grazing on the short green grass that grew on
different spots near the water's edge. These grassy places were the
sites of former habitations, and were still marked by the line of
crumbled walls, now the constant resort of the few wild geese that
breed every year on the lonely and unvisited islands of the loch.

LIFE AT ROSEHALL. 43

Below me there was a capital Hat for deer, a long sloping
valley with a winding burn tiowing through the middle, along the
banks of which were grassy spots where they constantly fed. I
searched this long and carefully with my glass, but saw nothing
excepting a few small companies of sheep which were feeding in
different flocks about the valley. So famous, however, was this
place as the resort of deer, that I took good care not to show
myself, and crawled carefully into a hollow run, which, leading to
the edge of the burn, would enable me to walk almost unseen for
a long distance, and I thought that there might still be deer
feeding in some bend of the watercourse, where they had escaped
iny search. Before I had walked many hundred yards down the
course of the burn, I saw such traces as convinced me they had
been feeding there within a few hours ; so, arranging my plaid
and rifle I walked stealthily and slowly onwards, expecting to
see them every moment. The nature of the ground was such
that I might come on them quite unperceived ; the dog, too,
showed symptoms of scenting something, putting his nose to the
tracks and then looking wistfully in my face, watching every
movement of my rifle. The inquiring expression of his face was
perfect ; whenever I stopped to look over or around some pro-
jecting angle of rock, he kept his eyes fixed on my face, as if to
read in it whether my search was successful or not. A deer-
stalker in the situation I was in would make a good subject for
a painter. I wound my way silently and slowly through the
broken rock and stone which formed the bed of the burn, showing
in their piled-up confusion that the water must at some times
rage and rush with the fury and power of an Alpine torrent,
though now it danced merrily along, rippling through the stones
and forming tiny pools here and there where it had not strength
enough to break through the accumulated sand and gravel which
dammed up its feeble stream. Dressed in gray, and surrounded
with gray stone on every side, I was as little conspicuous as it
was possible to be, and there was just enough ripple in the stream
and its thousand miniature cascades to drown the sound of my
footsteps, whenever I inadvertently put my foot on any stone

44 LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

that grated or slipped below me. The only thing that annoyed
me was an occasional sheep that would see me from the bank
above, and by running off in a startled manner was likely to warn
the deer, if there were any ahead of me, of the vicinity of an
enemy. I had continued this course for some distance, when
just as I began to turn off in order to cross the valley to look
over the next height, and had made up my mind that the deer
whose recent traces I had seen must have slipped away unobserved
—just then, on turning a corner, I caught a momentary glimpse
of the hind-quarters of one of the wished-for animals walking
slowly round a turn in the burn. I stopped, fearing- they had
seen or heard me, and I expected to see them leap out of the
hollow and make away across the valley ; but not seeing this
happen, I walked carefully on, and came in view of nine deer,
hinds and calves, who were feeding quietly on a little piece of
table-land close to the burn. I also saw the long ears of
another appearing beyond and above the rest, evidently being on
the lookout. They seemed to have no suspicion of an enemy,
and when they stopped to gaze about them their heads were
turned more towards the plain around than to the course of the
burn. The sentry, too, was seemingly occupied with looking out
in every direction excepting where I was. They were not more
than two hundred yards off, and I judged that by advancing
quickly the moment that they turned the next corner, I should
be able to get unperceived within forty or fifty yards. The single
hind had disappeared too, having gone over a small rise. I put
on a new copper cap, and felt sure of an easy shot ; the dog,
though he did not see the deer, perfectly understood what was
going on, and seemed afraid to breathe lest he should be heard.
Amongst the herd were two fine barren hinds, both in capital con-
dition. I did not care which of the two I might kill, but deter-
mined to have one. and was already beginning to reckon on
Donald's delight at my luck in getting a fine hind as well as the
stag I had killed yesterday. All the hinds had now gone out of
sight, and I moved on. At that very moment the sentry hind, a
long-legged, ragged, donkey-like beast, came back to the mound

LIFE AT ROSE HALL. 45

where she had been before, and her sharp eyes instantly detected
me. Never did unlucky wight, caught in the very act of doing
what he least wished should be known, feel, or, I dare say, look
so taken aback as I was. I stood motionless for a moment, hop-
ing that even HER eyesight might be deceived by my gray dress,
but it was too late ; giving a , snort of alarm, she was instantly
out of sight. I ran forwards, trusting to be in time for a running
shot at some straggler, and came in view of the whole troop gallop-
ing away, a tolerably long shot off, but still within range, and
affording a fair broadside mark as they went along in single
file to gain the more level ground. I of course pulled up, and
took a deliberate aim at one of the fat hinds. She afforded me a
fair enough chance, but I saw, the moment I pulled the trigger,
that I had missed her. The ball struck and splintered a rock,
and must have passed within a very few inches of the top of her
shoulder. I saw my error, which was that, miscalculating the
distance, I had fired a little too high. However, it was too late
to remedy it ; so I stood quietly watching with a kind of vague
hope that my ball might have passed through her shoulder, though
in reality I was sure this was not the case. They never stopped
till they reached the very summit of one of the heights that
enclosed the valley, and then they all halted in a group for two
or three minutes, standing in clear and strong-relief against the
sky. After looking back for a short time towards the point of
alarm, they disappeared over the top of the hill, and I reloaded
my rifle, and then went to examine the exact spot where my ball
had struck. Judging from the height it was from the ground, I
saw the hind had had a very narrow escape, and muttered to
myself, " Not a bad shot after all, though unlucky ; well, I'm glad
it was not a fine stag — never mind the hinds." It's pleasant to
find consolation — "rebus in adversis ; " my dog in the meantime
scented about a good deal, and seemed to wonder that I had
missed.

I now turned off out of my stony path, and walked across a
long tract of easy ground. There were several likely spots in my
way, but no deer were to be found ; and an hour before my time

46 LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

I arrived at the trysting-place, which was a peculiarly-shaped
large rock, standing in the midst of a great extent of ground
covered with gray stones, arid rocks of a similar description, but all
much smaller. The rock itself rejoiced in a Gaelic name signi-
fying the " Devil's Stone." It was a curious spot — a wide and
gentle slope of a hill perfectly covered with these gray stones,
looking as if they had dropped in a shower from the clouds.
They ended abruptly near the foot of the hill, and formed almost
a straight line, as if some giant workman had done his best to
clear the remainder of the slope, and had picked all the stones
off that part, as farmers do off' a grass field. Upwards towards
the top of the hill they increased, if possible, in number, and the
summit appeared like one mass of rock. Through all this desola-
tion of stone there were several strips of heather, or withered-
looking grass, not much wider, however, than footpaths. These
served as passes for any sheep and deer which might fancy
journeying through them.

I reached my point of rendezvous, and sat down to wait
patiently for Donald, with my face turned in the direction
whence he was to arrive. I knew that, unless detained by
any quite unforeseen accident, he would arrive rather before
than after his time, as he was to bring me something in the
shape of luncheon ; the liquid part of which I was confident he
would not forget.

I waited some time in this solitude, without hearing or seeing
any living creature to enliven the dreary landscape before me,
with the exception of a pair of ravens who passed at no great
height above me, uttering their harsh croaks of ill omen as they
winged their way in a direct course, to feast on the remains of
some dead sheep or deer.

My attention was suddenly roused, however, by hearing a
couple of shots in quick succession, the sound coming from the
direction in which I expected Donald. As the reports did not
appear to be at any great distance, I rose with the intention of
going to meet him ; though I could not understand what he was
shooting at, it being quite against both his and my ideas of pro-

LIFE AT ROSEHALL. 47

priety that he should hunt the very ground over which I intended
to beat homewards.

On second thoughts, I fancied that he had fired off' his gun
to warn me of his approach ; but, just as I was passing these
things over in my head, I saw a stag of good size come in view
from the direction in which I had heard the shots. Down I
dropped instantly behind a rock, as the deer was coming straight
towards me. As he approached, I saw that the poor beast was
hard hit. One of his forelegs was broken, and swinging about in
a miserable manner, and he had also one of his horns broken off
a few inches above his head ; altogether he seemed in a most
pitiable state. Before he came within two hundred yards of me
he turned off and I watched him as he scrambled along on three
legs painfully and slowly, stopping frequently to look back, or to
smell at the blood that was trickling down his sides. I could
plainly see that he was also struck somewhere about the middle
of his body, as well as on the horn and leg, and was now bleeding
fast.

It then occurred to me that Donald had fallen in with a lame
stag, and had thought it best to do what he could towards killing
him with my gun. Bullets he always took with him by my
orders. The stag continued his painful march, and I would have
given much to have been within reach to put an end to the poor
brute's misery. He twice lay down on a grassy spot amongst
the rocks, having first looked anxiously and fearfully round him ;
but seemingly the attitude of lying was more painful to him than
moving slowly on. I remembered then a theory of Donald's,
that a deer never lies down when shot through the liver, but
continues moving, or at any rate standing, till he dies. How far
this opinion was correct I never had a good opportunity of
proving. The deer before me, having found that lying down
gave him no relief, continued moving, but still slowly and with
evident difficulty. Once he stopped and stood in a pitiful
attitude, trembling all over, and moving his head up and down
as if oppressed with deadly sickness. After this lie seemed to
recover slightly, and, standing erect, gazed with care and anxiety

48

LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

in every direction ; then, as if determined to make one more effort
for his life, set off in a broken trot,

He had been winding about amongst the rocks all the time
I had been watching him, seldom more than two hundred yards
from me, and sometimes so near that I was half tempted to try
a shot at him ; but I was always in hopes of getting within surer
range, and did not fire. He now trotted off about three hundred
yards, where there was a small black pool of water. Into this
lie went ; it did not at first reach higher than his knees. Just
then Donald appeared in view, coming slowly and cautiously over
the hill, and leading a pointer -in a string. I saw that the dog
was tracking the deer. It was a large powerful dog, of great size
and strength — one of the finest, if not quite the finest built dog of

the kind that I had ever possessed or seen. Having been at the
death of one or two deer, he had taken a mighty fancy to the
scent of a bleeding stag, and tracked true and keenly. I sat
quiet to watch him and the old Highlander, as they came slowly
but surely on the track, with both their noses to the ground ;
Donald hunting low, in order to be sure that the dog was still
right, which he could tell pretty well by the occasional spots of
blood on the gray stones, though the ground was too hard most
of the way to show the mark of the foot. Now and then they
seemed quite thrown out for a minute or so ; this I saw was
generally occasioned by Donald's want of judgment. The dog,
though he strained on the string, kept the track wonderfully well
in every turn. The poor object of their chase, when he first saw

LIFE AT ROSEHALL. 49

his enemies appear, gave a sudden start, and seemed inclined to
make off; but on second thoughts he stopped short again, and,
lowering his head and neck, crouched in the water, as if trusting
to the surrounding rocks for concealment ; and there the poor
animal remained, with stooping horns, perfectly motionless, but
evidently with every nerve and sense on the alert, listening for
the nearer approach of his enemies. For my own part, I became
quite interested in watching Donald and the dog ; I knew that the
stag was safely ours, as he could not leave the pool without coming
into full view, and having to depend on his speed for safety, which
in his enfeebled state was the last thing he would like to do.
Donald looked anxiously round him sometimes, as if he hoped to
see me, and as if he expected to hear my rifle every moment,
since he was well aware that our time of meeting was past, and
that I was pretty sure not to be far off.

When he came near the " Devil's Stone" he checked the dog,
and came to a determined halt, hesitating whether to^ continue
tracking the stag or to wait for my appearance and assistance ; he
took a long look, too, at the country far beyond where the animal
really was. It was amusing to see the old fellow, as he sat
within eighty yards of me, perfectly unconscious that the stag
was so near him, and that I was still nearer. The whole thing,
too, showed the great necessity of always having a good tracking
dog out when deer-stalking ; for here was a mortally-struck stag
lying concealed where a dozen men might have passed within a
few yards without seeing him. I thought it time to finish the
business, and gave a low whistle to warn Donald of my neighbour-
hood before I stirred, as I thought it not at all unlikely that he
would fire blindly at the first moving thing he saw amongst the
rocks in his present excited state. He started and stared round
him. I saw that the deer only crouched the lower, and would
not move ; so whistling again, I stood up. " The Lord keep us,
sir, but you flegged me just awful, " said Donald. " But did
your honour see a stag come this way ? " I told him that I had,
and that he had passed on ; but I did not say how far he had
gone. The old man was annoyed in no slight degree at the

D

50 LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

information ; and on my questioning him how he had got at the
deer, etc., he told me that, as he came to me, he had seen a crippled
stag coming slowly over the ground exactly towards him ; and
that having stooped down and loaded the gun he carried as quickly
as he could, he had waited till the stag passed within twenty
yards of him ; that he then fired both barrels, one at his head and
neck ; that one ball had broken off a portion of the deer's horn,
while the other had passed through his body, tumbling him over :
but that he had quickly recovered and made off in my direction,
and was probably now in the burn over the next hill. " But you
are aye smiling, sir ; and I ken weel that you've seen more of the
brute than you tell me." I told the old man exactly where he
was ; and having made him quite understand the very rock he
was behind, I gave him the rifle to finish the work he had com-
menced, while I sat down with the two dogs in full view of the
pool, in order to keep the attention of the stag occupied.

" N"ow then, Donald, take care ; don't be in a hurry, and hit
him on the heart or the head."

" No fear, no fear ; if I put out," said Donald, " ye needna
mind, the beast is as gude as killed already."

Then taking a prodigious spoonful of snuff to clear his brain,
and divesting himself of his gamebag and other encumbrances, he
set off. He reached a mound within thirty yards of the stag, and
lying flat on his stomach, with his rifle resting on the bank, he
aimed long and steadily ; then, with sundry kicks and contortions,
screwing himself into an attitude that pleased him more, he took
another aim, and then a good strong pull at the trigger — but in
vain, as he had not cocked the rifle. Without taking it off the
rest over the bank, he pulled back the hammer and fired instantly,
missing the stag entirely. Donald was too astonished to move ;
but not so the stag, who jumped up and made off — going, however,
so stiffly and lamely that I saw the dogs must bring him to
immediately. So I let them go, and in a very short time they
had the poor beast on the ground, and were both fixed on him
like leeches, the bull-dog on his throat and the pointer worrying
at his shoulder.

LIFE AT ROSEHALL. 51

" Bravo, Donald ! — well missed ! " I could not help calling
out as I passed him, running as hard as I could to help the dogs.
The old man was not long in joining me ; and the dogs were soon
got off. The stag was bled, and then examined all over to see
where he had been struck.

" 'Deed, sir," said Donald, pointing to the rifle, " she is as gleg
and kittle to handle as "

Here he paused as if at a dead loss for a simile ; which
I was obliged to help him to at last by suggesting, " As your
own wife, Donald." At which he indulged in a low inward
chuckle and a pinch of snuff, without, however, denying the
" soft impeachment."

On looking at the stag, we found that he had evidently been
very lately shot at, and that one of his forelegs was broken above
the knee — the bone smashed entirely, and the leg hanging on by
the skin, which would have soon worn through ; the animal, hav-
ing lost the encumbrance of the broken limb, would soon, if left
in quiet, have entirely recovered. We prepared our game for
being " left till called for," and sat down to our luncheon. My
account to Donald of the death of my other stag was interrupted
by a most desperate battle between the dogs, who had fallen out
over the dead body ; and being pretty well matched in size and
courage, we had great difficulty in reducing them to order and
compelling them to keep the peace.

I had a pleasant though not very bloody afternoon's shooting
going home, killing seven brace of wild-flying grouse, a mallard,
and two blackcocks. The night had set in before we were half
way through the woods in which the last two or three miles of
our road lay ; we could hear numberless owls hooting and calling
on the tops of old larch trees. Everything else was as still as
death.

" 'Deed, sir, that 's no' canny ! " exclaimed my companion, as
an owl with peculiar vigour of lungs uttered his wild cry close
to us, and then, flitting past our faces, alighted on the opposite
side of the avenue we were walking along, and recommenced
his song of bad omen. " If it wasn't so dark, I'd empty the

52

LIFE AT ROSEHALL.

gun into his ugly craig." However, as it was so dark, the owl
escaped being sacrificed, to Donald's dislike this time ; and we
soon reached the house, where the comforts of my own dressing-
room were by no means unacceptable after so long an absence
from razor, brushes, etc.

INVERERNE.

1846.

GROUSE disease is attributed to tapeworm. I am more inclined
to think that the actual disease is an affection of the liver, and
that the birds attacked by this liver disease areTsubject to tape-
worm frequently, but far from invariably, as on opening the dead
birds that showed symptoms of the illness, we always found the
liver to be much diseased, but seldom, very seldom, found any
mark of tapeworm.

There is striking peculiarity in the sick birds. Their breast
feathers become of a dull reddish brown, quite different from the
colour of a healthy bird, and the plumage altogether is not
so bright or glossy as that of a healthy grouse.

I never observed so rich a bloom on the heather. As the
dogs hunted, they were accompanied by a cloud of dust, or rather
pollen from the flowers, which very much spoilt their scent. The
perfume of the heather, like that of honey, was quite striking as
we walked over the hills.

54 INVERERHE.

A great many blue or mountain hares breed on these hills
owing to the destruction of the vermin. They are very annoying
to dogs who are not well broken from running hares, owing
to their manner of stopping and reconnoitring their enemy,
sitting upon their hind quarters at a short distance from the
dogs, and so tempting them to chase.

On the 9th of September I shot two wigeons as they passed
over my head Hying inland in the evening. These birds generally
come about the middle of October. The flock I saw consisted of
eight or nine, and I am inclined to think had been bred in the
country, though their doing so is a very rare occurrence.

On the 18th of the month I killed a jacksnipe. These birds
also come usually near the end of October. They never breed in
this country. There had been no severe weather to drive them
here earlier than usual. I killed some more jacksnipe during the
month. The woodcock was apparently a bird bred in the country.

Both hawks * were merlins ; the smallest of the two scarcely
bigger than a blackbird.

The land-rails seldom are seen here after July or August.
They seem to leave us as soon as their young can accompany
them, and it is very rare to find them after the corn is cut. I
killed one in some rough ground quite away from their usual
haunts.

Babbits, hares, and also wood-pigeons continue to breed later
this year than usual, owing to the fineness of the season. Green-
finches also breed till the end of the month.

Whitethroats and swallows have entirely disappeared before
the end of the month, as also swifts, martins, cuckoo, &c.

A wheatear or two are seen till the beginning of October, but
very few.

Peewits collect in great numbers near the shore, also golden
plovers. Great flocks of young gulls of all kinds are seen.

On the 3rd of October I saw a wood-pigeon's nest with
small young ones in it. A day or two afterwards, however, both
the young birds were dead.

* [These hawks had been shot a few days earlier. — ED.]

INVERERNE. 5 5

I killed a land-rail on the 3rd, the latest period at which
1 ever saw them here. It was the fattest bird that I ever saw.
Some quails, three or four, were killed at Duffus early in the
month. I had seen and heard them here in the month of May,
so that they probably breed here.

A weasel (a very small one) killed a large hen that was
sitting in a hedge close to the house.

On the 12th of this month I saw several large flocks of wild
geese. They were flying towards the south-east. There was a
considerable quantity of snow covering the higher hills and moun-
tains in Koss-shire about the llth and 12th.

The wigeons were very numerous also, the large flocks
appearing to have come about the 9th and 10th. More of the
mallard duck than usual in the bag. The latter birds fly every
evening to feed in the stubbles. They fix upon a field where
there is much grain left on the ground, and but little grass
or weeds to cover the scattered grains, and come regularly to it
soon after sunset. They have some means of communicating
with each other, as their numbers increase on a good field every
night, as if those who had already found it invited their friends
to the feast.

Kedshanks very numerous on the shore.

After a flood in the river, numbers of snipe always come
down for a day or two to feed about the mud left by the water.
Flocks of peewits on the 18th (later than usual).

I shot a crossbill on the 10th, out of a small company of five
or six.

Water-ouzels come to the burns near the sea about the
beginning of October. The same stones are occupied year after
year by these birds.

On the 18th, flocks of starlings.

I shot a grey gull, 5 ft. 11^ in. between the tips of the wings.

In the beginning of October the rats return to the houses
from the fields and ditches.

Roe in good condition, and with their winter coat, about the
second week in October.

5 6 INVERERNE.

Spawning trout get into all the small ditches wherever they
find running water.

Hen-harriers andj other hawks come down and hunt the
low grounds in October.

Redwings arrive in middle of October. Fieldfares about the
last week of the month.

Grouse in October and September feed very much on
the stubble fields, and are snared and trapped in great numbers
by the shepherds and others who have small oat fields far up in
the hills. They frequently leave some of the sheaves on the
ground for the express purpose of catching the grouse. The
usual manner is with horsehair nooses. They put a great number
of these snares on each sheaf of corn, and catch dozens of grouse
in a morning.

October 27th. — The golden plover assemble morning and
evening in immense flocks on the gravel banks along the edge
of the river.

After a flood in the river a great many snipe come down to
feed about the mud left after the water has subsided.

I shot a wood-pigeon with its crop entirely full of well-
ripened acorns. As this food does not ripen here in any quantity,
I was much surprised at the circumstance, the more so as it was
a young bird, and the spot where I killed it was at the distance
of some miles from any oak tree. In England I have frequently
observed that the wild ducks fly to considerable distances at
night time to feed on the acorns that drop from oak trees stand-
ing singly in the fields.

About the middle of October the roe have lost their red
summer coat and have put on their beautiful mouse-coloured
winter covering, though the hair has not yet acquired its full
length. These animals are very fond of feeding in the clover
fields, nibbling at the second growth that comes up now. As
the leaves are now dropping off the birch and larch, the roe
leave these woods now and betake themselves to the fir woods,
where they remain till the spring affords them shelter again in
the verdurous woods by the return of the leaf.

INVERERNE. 57

The proceedings of the field mouse (mus. sylvaticus) are now
very interesting. These pretty little animals are at this season
very busy in digging out and arranging their holes in the stubble
fields. They have already laid up their stores of grain, acorns,
nuts, and even cherry stones. Sometimes four or five mice are
found in one hole ; almost invariably at this season, if any mice
are in a hole, the aperture is completely closed, which they can
only do from within, thus shutting themselves up from the cold
winds. The quantity of earth that they excavate with their
tiny paws is" quite astonishing, making a goodly heap in a single
night. My gardener encourages the boys to destroy these mice,
and they turn them out of their holes by pouring a pailful of
water into the hole, when the poor little animals are obliged to
leave their tenement.

NOVEMBER.

. November 1st. — A small tomtit has taken to living in the
house, frequenting the drawing-room and an adjoining parlour.
The little fellow hops about without the smallest fear, searching
for and eating the house flies and other insects. He seems to
principally feed on the larger house Hies, prying into every
crevice about the shutters and window curtains after these
insects, which collect now in g-reat numbers, and being in a
sleepy condition are easily caught by this active devourer. The
children also put down crumbs on the table where I am writing,
which he picks up close to me, looking up into my face without
the least apparent fear.

November 6th. — Peewits still come inland in the dusk. I
saw to-day a flock of snow buntings, the first I have seen this
year, two or three very white ones amongst the flock, which is
unusual at this season of the year. I flushed several brace of
jacksnipes in a small spot of rushes. There is a very striking
difference in the colour of the legs of different birds of the kind,

INVERERNE. 5 9

some having yellowish-green legs and some blue -coloured legs.
The latter appear to be the old birds.

The thrushes feed in great numbers now in the turnip fields.

As soon as the wheat is sown, birds of all kinds flock on it
in great numbers — rooks, wood-pigeons, gulls, and small birds,
particularly greenfinches. The flocks of the latter seem to consist
almost wholly of cock birds.

November 8th. — By the edge of the river are tracks of four
otters, two old ones and two young ones. They are evidently
newly arrived, and will probably remain feeding about the mouth
of the river till a flood drives them away. There are two or
three small hillocks the size of molehills near the river, to which
the otters invariably resort ; and it seems that whenever an otter
arrives in that part of the river, however great a stranger he
may be, or however long an interval may have elapsed since an
otter has visited the hillock, the newcomer goes out of the water
to examine the place as if the animal wished to judge by the
scenery or staleness of the marks on it what likelihood there
may be of any other otters being in the neighbourhood.

Shy as the otter is, and easily alarmed in his ordinary
pursuits, no animal shows more courage and determination in
defending its young, or more attachment to its mate or companion.
If a young otter is taken hold of, the mother, on hearing its cry
of distress, at once puts off all her timidity and rushes to the
rescue of her curious looking progeny. I have known a man to
be so determinedly attacked by a female otter, that he was obliged,
in self-defence, to drop the young one that he was carrying off.
When an otter is caught in a trap, all its companions that may be
within hearing of its struggles to escape immediately repair
to the spot and try to assist the captive in escaping.

During the daytime the otter lies quietly in some concealed
spot, either in a hole excavated under some overhanging bank or
root of a tree, or in some hollow place amongst a cairn of stone ;
occasionally, however, when surprised by the light of day in
a situation where he deems it imprudent to continue his course
towards the usual hiding-place, the otter will lie up for the day

60 INVEKERNE.

in some very unexpected place, crawling quietly into some con-
venient drain, or choosing a dry place in a clump of rushes, and
there he will lie during the whole day, till the gloom of evening
enables him to continue his journeying, or to commence fishing
again. I remember an instance of a groom in Hampshire being
startled by an otter jumping from under his wheelbarrow, which he
had left leaning against the stable wall close to a stream. Into
this the otter had crawled in the morning, and there he would
probably have remained till evening had not the man, having
occasion for the barrow, dislodged him by turning it over.

Though the otter is naturally wholly piscivorous, on emergency
he will eat flesh or fowl, and is occasionally caught in traps
baited with a pigeon, a piece of rabbit, or whatever else the
gamekeeper may make use of in catching other vermin. The
trap that holds an otter must, however, have both a powerful
spring and be well chained to a peg, with a swivel or two on the
chain to prevent the animal breaking it by dint of twisting.

In hunting down the course of a river during the night time,
in descending the stream the otter always keeps the water,
gliding, in his quiet ghostlike manner, down the deep pools,
making scarcely a ripple as he floats down, sometimes diving and,
indeed, rarely showing much of his head above the surface,
excepting when to listen to some distant sound, or to gaze at
some doubtful object, he suddenly rises half his length per-
pendicularly out of the water. In passing the fords he wades
down the shallowest place, or if the stream is there very rapid, he
comes out of the water and follows the bank of the river, moving
along in a curious leaping manner. When in pursuit of fish, the
otter seems, as far as can be observed, to try to get below his prey
in order to seize it by the throat. The quickness of his
movements in the water, as well as the little disturbance he
makes, are quite wonderful, gliding swiftly and noiselessly as an
arrow from a bow. In ascending the stream, to return homewards
to his day quarters, he leaves the water wherever the current
is at all strong, and, indeed, he seems to travel at this time
almost as much by land as by water.

INVERERNE. 6 1

November llth. — The snowliakes [bunting] seem to be con-
stantly arriving from the north in considerable flights. During
the two days of damp fog that have occurred, the partridges
entirely leave the turnip fields and remain all day on the sand-
banks and other dry places near the river.

November 12th. — Great flocks of snowflakes on the hills,
also immense numbers of greenfinches in the corn-yards. A
small flock of redpolls. I found more snipe than usual on
that ground. The congregating of these different birds, and the
cold raw mists that have now lasted three days, seem as if snow
was coming; Partridges are quite unapproachable just now.
The grass and every leaf is so saturated with wet that these
birds, never squatting flat on the ground, are in a state of constant
watchfulness. The water-ouzel sings all day now, sometimes
sitting on a stone, and at other times floating with half-open
wings on the surface of the pools.

The burns are full of spawning trout. In the shallows they
can be seen ploughing up the gravel with their noses, in order to
make beds for their spawn.

November 13th. — The partridges are collected in flocks like
grouse. Saw a great number of fieldfares and redwings.

Many tracks of foxes and otter by the edge of the river.

November 14th. — Immense flocks of fieldfa-res and redwings
in every new-sown wheat field. Great numbers of wood-pigeons.
The sea-gulls feed indiscriminately on worms, snails, and grain.
Partridges just now are shifting their ground, and fresh coveys
appear everywhere. They leave the turnip fields and remain all
day on heather or sandy ground.

November 24th. — I saw two peewits to-day. I remark this,
wishing to keep note of the latest day on which I see any of
these birds.

November 26th. — Saw to-day five swans. They were flying at
the height of nine or ten feet from the ground towards the bay.
They were at the time coming from the south, probably from
Lochindorb, where these birds occasionally rest for a day or so, but
never remain longer, as that loch is not adapted for their feeding.

6 2 INVERERNE.

The wind, which was blowing strongly from the north, obliged them
to fly so low. After alighting in the bay for about half an hour
they rose and flew (as they invariably do for a short time) to wind-
ward, then turning they winged their way rapidly with the wind in
the direction of the Loch of Spynie, which is a favourite resting-
place, being shallow and abounding in the grass on which they feed.

S tells me that there are two kinds of wild swans fre-
quenting this country — one perfectly white and with their feet
entirely black, the other kind having the lower parts of a cream
colour, and their feet mottled with brown and black. He also
says that the latter kind are larger than the former.

Hares have some peculiar habits which, from the animal
itself being so common, are not often remarked, as no one looks
on a hare as anything more than an article of food, whereas it is
as interesting and beautiful a creature as exists. One peculiarity
is the great love that hares have for taking up their quarters near
houses. I find invariably a hare or two close to the houses of the
town, and also close to the different cottages on my ground.

I remember once sleeping at a shepherd's house on the hills.
During almost all the night the dogs of the place were barking
and yelping at my deerhound, entirely preventing me from
sleeping. I was the first person up, and on going to the back of
the house to look at the morning sun, I started a hare that had
made her form up against the turf wall of the cottage undeterred
by the constant noise that had gone on during all the night.
Similar instances have often fallen under my observation. I
found a hare sitting the other day within five feet of where I
was standing, and in a very open place. I wanted to show her
to one of my children, who was riding four or five hundred yards
from the spot, so T stood still and sent a man to call the boy.
In the meantime I had to call loudly at and rate my dogs, four
of which were hunting about the place. Seeing with their quick
and peculiar instinct that I saw something, the dogs became very
eager, and it required a great deal of calling at to keep them quiet
and make them lie for four or five minutes. When the child came
I had to point the hare out to him. The poor little animal, notwith-

TNVEREKNE. 63

standing all this noise, did not move so much as one of her paws,
but remained perfectly motionless, with her eye fixed on mine.
The moment 1 took my eye off' her (which T had not done all this
time) she darted off, and springing through the only spot free from
her numerous enemies, she was over the brow of a hill in two strides.

A hare will allow a person to pass within a yard or two
of her when sitting, as long as the man's direction does not seem
likely to lead him exactly over her, and as long as she fancies she
is unobserved. In cover, hares steal away at some distance
off much more frequently than they do in an open place ; but
different hares act very differently in this respect in the same
ground and on the same days, some lying close and others
stealing away wildly with no apparent reason.

November 2Qth. — Saw five wild swans.

November 27 'th. — Several flocks of swans seen passing to the
bay. It is an invariable fact that all the flocks of swans, when
they first come, are seen arriving from the southwards, although
we well know that they must visit this country from the north.
It appears to me that they must alight on some of the lochs
on Strathspey, or in that district, and that they turn northwards
to Findhorn Bay, from where they distribute themselves amongst
the lakes where they feed, such as Lochlee, the Loch of Spynie,
etc. Judging from the sudden appearance of -these birds, I have
no doubt that we shall have a storm of snow in a day or two.

November 28th. — The ground, as I anticipated from seeing
the swans, is covered with snow, deeper than I ever saw it at
this season. No swans to be seen in the bay, but an infinity of
wild ducks, etc. Shot several mallards and one dun diver (mergus
castor linnceus). This bird is much smaller than the female
goosander (for which it is sometimes taken), though evidently
quite full grown and well plumaged — the cream colour of the
breast, and peculiarly clean and beautiful, and the curiously
serrated bill of a bright red colour. It brought up twenty-five
of the small fish we called sticklebacks and a small eel, all quite
recently caught, The edges of the bill are so formed that a fish
or other slippery prey easily goes into his mouth, but owing

64

INVERERNE.

to the teeth all sloping inwards, they act like the barb of a hook,
and prevent anything that has once entered from escaping.
Facilis descensus Averni, sed revocare gradum, etc., so would say
the small fish.

Bewick describes this bird as 27 in. long and weighing
3 Ibs. I find it 20 in. long and weighing [?] Ibs.

He has evidently measured a female goosander instead of
a dun diver, which latter bird is always much smaller than
the former. The bird killed to-day had about it all the un-
mistakeable appearance of a mature, well-grown bird of its kind.

Blackbirds and thrushes very busy under the garden walls in
search of snails, etc.

The field mice have the entrances to all their holes stopped
up this cold weather.

DECEMBEE.

Large flocks of golden plovers both on the sands and in
the fields, and on the hills. They appear to rest on the heather
during the high tides, when the sands and banks are covered
in the bay. As the tide recedes, they return to the sands. I,
however, consider both these birds and the peewits as almost,
if not wholly, night feeding birds. They evidently feed all night
in the fields (where there is not much frost), and on the shore
when the earth is frozen.

December 3rd. — After two days of snow, a fresh north-west
wind, which blows away and melts all the snow near the sea.
The common wild ducks during the day were flying to and fro
from the sea to the stubble fields. These birds are always very
anxious to take to the fields on the firsl disappearance of
frost and snow ; as, during the time that the ground is hard with
frost or covered with snow, they cannot feed on the corn,
the grass, or the worms and insects on which they feed.

A singular incident happened to me to-day in shooting at
a mallard. The bird flew away apparently not injured. I
happened to be watching him, and as he just went out of sight
over a hill at the distance of, at least, a quarter of a mile, I fancied
that I saw the bird show the white feather below his wing, as if
he had tumbled down in his flight. On going up to the place, I
found him on the ground with his wing broken close to the body.
The bird had, at first, flown with the wind, and then flew
well enough, but after battling against the wind for a few
hundred yards, the bone (which must have been injured by
the shot) broke in two.

6 6 INVERERNE.

My retriever brought me a water-rail (rallus aquaticus),
which he had caught amongst some rushes, the little bird not
being injured. I took it home to show to my children, and then
turned it loose again in a running stream, where it bustled away
quite at its ease, and seemingly indifferent to the circumstance
(rather a singular one in the history of its life) of having been an
hour or two in my shooting coat pocket. I was struck with the
courage of the little fellow when the dog brought him. He
fought away with both feet and bill, striking not only the dog's
face, but my hand when I took hold of him, and when I put my
hand into my pocket where he was, he flew at my fingers, pecking
at them with all his strength. I had occasion, on another day,
to remark the courage of a water-rail. One rose from a ditch
where the ground was covered with snow. As I did not fire
at him, he flew for a hundred yards, and pitched on the snow in
the adjoining field, and immediately set off to return to the water
from which he had been flushed. A large black-backed gull,
seeing the little black bird on the snow, made a dart at it to carry
it off; but the little rail immediately flung himself on his back,
and whenever the gull flew at him, he struck out manfully with
bill and claws, springing up and pulling feathers out of his
gigantic enemy, and keeping him off. Afraid, however, that the
little rail would be killed, I went and drove away the gull, and
allowed him to run back to the water.

The water-rail is, at all times, a rare and solitary bird
in this country. I have but rarely seen them, although I am
constantly in the habit of hunting for snipe, etc., in the rushy
places and ditches where the rails do frequent when here. Their
tracks, too, are but rarely seen in the snow, although a rail
evidently travels a great distance on foot, passing over large open
fields from one ditch to another. I have sometimes traced them
in the snow for long distances.

I hear the swans now during the moonlight nights calling in
the bay, and the wigeons keep up a constant whistling, varied
sometimes by a low croaking quack. The latter birds feed
wholly on grass and grassy weeds, coming regularly on the ebb of

INVERERNE. 67

the tide to graze on the grassy banks that are left bare. I rarely
see them take to the fields. I saw to-day three long-tailed ducks
(anas glacialis) in the burn.

December llth. — Severe snowstorm. Wind N.-E. Wigeon
are driven to the open ditches, and are very tame. The long-
tailed ducks are also in every open pool and ditch, and so tame
that they will rather dive than fly, however near I approach.

December 12th and 1 3th. — The snipe begin to come in great
numbers to every open ditch, but. are very wild in consequence of
all their cover being beaten down by the snow, which makes
them unable to conceal themselves.

December 14:th and L5th. — The redwings, thrushes, linnets,
and other small birds become very tame and distressed for want
of food. A tawny bunting^ (a rare bird here) came into the
house. The rooks do great mischief to the corn stacks, tearing
out the straw and carrying off' the corn. Along every ditch side
and drain I see the tracks of weasels. These little animals seem
to travel an astonishing distance, hunting carefully every furze
bush and other place which might conceal any prey. A specimen
of the little auk was killed by a man in a ditch leading into the
sea. The river is quite choked up at the end by the accumulation
of frozen snow and ice, and the whole bay (excepting a small part
near Findhorn) is covered with masses of ice and snow.

December 19th. — The frost and snow commence to go. There
is still, however, a considerable depth in sheltered places, which
are not reached by the wind. Nothing melts snow so quickly as
wind. The snipe have collected in great numbers about every
unfrozen place, but from the grass and rushes being covered with
snow, they are very wild. The partridges and hares, from the
same reason, are quite unapproachable. Kabbits burrow under
the snow. During the first two days of snow, rabbits and hares
appear to move very little. Fieldfares and redwings, though
weak and tame, do not become lean for the first week, but seem
to find sufficient food about the springs and shore to keep them
in good order.

* [Probably a young snow bunting. — ED.]

68

INVERERNE.

I was much struck by the strength displayed by rooks in digging
up the snow and frozen ground in search of the fresh-sown wheat,
large spaces of the fields appearing as if rooted up by pigs.

Wood-pigeons destroy turnips (particularly Swedish turnips)
during snow, by digging into them in a manner which seems
quite beyond the strength of their bills.

Eobins are very carnivorous, devouring raw meat most
voraciously. So do tomtits.

The water-ouzels seem to enjoy this cold weather, flitting
about and warbling with great appearance of delight.

Weasels and stoats wander to great distances in snow,
particularly along the sides of water.

December 2lst. — Immense flocks of wigeon, mallards, teal,
coots, and other waterfowl. Spynie is the best loch in the
north of Scotland for wildfowl, and a great resort of swans, etc.
Towards evening the mallards and wigeon flew backwards and
forwards about the edges and to the few ditches and streams
that were not snowed over or covered with ice.

1847.
J A N U A E Y.

January 14^, 1847. — Neither wigeon nor teal are yet in
full plumage. Occasionally I kill a drake wigeon in full
feather, but the generality of them are still much mottled with
brown. There is a very great difference in the size of the drake
and duck wigeon.

A great number of the bird called the little auk are found,
being dead along the shore.

The wood-pigeons now feed entirely on the turnip leaves.
Sometimes they dig at a root that has been commenced on by a
rabbit or hare, but I do not think that they are the first to
break the skin of a turnip.

I see a great number of the nests of the garden spider, full of
eggs, about old railings, the garden walls, etc., and the tit-mice
seem to feed much on them.

The greenfinches are in immense nocks, and begin to sing
when collected on the trees. The corn-bunting and the yellow-
hammer collect in nocks on the tops of the trees and sing their
shrill, but not unpleasant note.

A weasel had eaten a great many of the mice caught in the

VO INVEREHNE.

boys' traps, and was at last caught itself in a rat trap. I don't
know a more courageous little animal than the weasel. When
overtaken by a dog it flies directly at the dog's head and bites
furiously. I also shot a beautiful milk-white stoat that came out
of a rabbit hole where I was ferreting.

January loth. — The wigeon now begin to feed very con-
stantly and quietly on the grassy banks and islands about the
bay, grazing along like tame geese in close flocks. Partridges
during the hard frost feed on clover very much. In this country
they never get lean, apparently requiring very little food. In
the snow they are unapproachable, though I remember once,
when a boy at school, killing nearly a whole covey in the snow.
I was lying hid, and a covey of partridges came within shot of
the old flint gun that I had borrowed for the occasion, so I shot
at them, killing three. Seeing that the rest of the covey did not
move away, but after looking up collected round their dead
companions, I fired again (having reloaded), killing one or two
more. Still keeping concealed, I again loaded and got another
shot, and might have killed them to the last had not the school-
fellow who was with me raised himself, when the birds imme-
diately flew away ; that is, the few that remained alive flew
away. Although I cannot plead guilty to ever having tried the
same plan again, I have been told that these birds never fly oft'
from the report of the gun till they see the shooter.

Wigeon in large flocks, and feeding all day on the grass
banks very greedily.

I see that the mallard duck feeds now very much in the
last year's potato fields. In the crop of one that I opened I
found a great quantity of potatoes, oats, and shrimps. I never
observed them feed on potatoes till this year. I fancy that they
are attracted by the vast quantity of half-rotten potatoes left in
the fields owing to the failure of that crop this season. My own
ducks appeared very fond of feeding on the diseased and half-
rotten potatoes that were put in a heap and covered slightly over
with mould, the ducks grubbing and digging them up to a
considerable depth.

INVERERNE.

January 29th. — A harder frost last night than we have had
during the whole winter, but rainy again in the daytime. I
put up a water-rail to-day amongst some furze bushes quite away
from any water. I found the remains of a little auk some
distance up the river, half-a-mile from the sea. The Hocks of
greenfinches seem to increase daily. The redshank commences
to change his note, uttering the peculiar whistle which they
make in the spring. The long-tail ducks were particularly
noisy in the bay to-day when the tide was coming in. Their
cry is very musical, and unlike that of any other bird. It
may resemble the bugle note of the wild swan slightly. The
rooks do much injury to the turnips, boring into them with
their sharp and strong bills. The boys at the farm near this
have two trout, about six inches in length, in the wooden trough
out of which their horses drink. The fish seem quite lively and
well, though they have lived in the trough since August last.
When the fresh water is pumped in for the horses, they dart up
to the place where it falls into the trough, and seem to enjoy it
very much without the least symptom of shyness.

January 30th. — The jacksnipe, which have disappeared for
a long time, appear again. I killed a brace to-day. The com-
mon hares turn very grey in this country about now. Those
killed in woods do not appear to turn so grey as those killed in
open ground. Immense nights of fieldfares and
(WindKE.)

redwings.

FEBKUAKY.

February 1st. — Ground quite covered with snow, and a great
quantity of frozen ice and snow floating in the bay, which quite
prevents the wild ducks and wigeon from coming near the
shore. The river, too, is full of floating snow and ice. I never
saw so many wigeon as are just now on this coast. Late in
the evening I heard a peewit call as the bird rose from a field,
when it was too dark to distinguish it. The drake wigeon are
now in full plumage.

February 2nd. — Both rooks and wood-pigeons must commit
great damage on the wheat and the turnips. The former is only
attacked by the rooks, the wood-pigeons' bills not being hard
enough to dig into the frozen ground. I shot a large stoat
to-day only partially white, although two or three that I had
killed lately (and even some weeks back) had been as pure a
white as snow. The stoat, when fully changed, is the whitest
animal that I know. Whether the one killed to-day is a young
animal I cannot tell, but certainly it was a peculiarly large one.

The collie dogs in this country kill a great number of hares
and rabbits. I constantly find marks in the snow of their
having done so.

INVERERNE. 73

February 9th. — Very severe frost, much snow and drift.
The fieldfares in great numbers on the Swedish turnips, and
I was much astonished at the great damage done by them to
the roots. I watched some of the birds digging at the turnips
with their bills and chipping and scooping out great pieces, in
this manner destroying half the crop at least by letting the frost
into the roots. The fieldfares themselves (some of them being
shot) had so strong a smell of turnip that they could not be
cooked, being perfectly unfit to eat from the rankness of their
smell, which resembled that of rotten turnips ; otherwise the
birds were not only in good condition, but quite fat.

The whole bay and all the streams and springs were so filled
up with drift snow and ice that there was not a single duck of any
sort to be seen, with the exception of one morillon, who had found
out about six feet square of open water in the burn. On being
flushed from this he flew a long distance up the stream in search of
some other opening, but, not finding any, came back and plumped
down into the same place close to me, and there I left him.

I never saw the low country here in such a state with snow
since I have lived here. Saw a flock of larks, which (this winter)
is a rare sight.

February IQtli. — Deep snow. In tracking rabbits on the
muir, observed that several of them had merely gone fifty yards
from their seat under a furze bush, and after eating the shoots
off the nearest bush, had returned to the same place.

February 1 2th. — I find many wood-pigeons that I kill have
the upper part of their bills and their feet covered with warty
excrescences, especially the later young birds of this season.
Those who have this disease are generally weak and thin.

February 1 5th. — Shot ducks in Loch of Spynie. There are
immense numbers of mallard and wigeon on the loch and some
pochards, pintail ducks, morillons, and teal. We killed a female
duck of a kind quite unknown to us — a beautiful shaped bird
with plain brown plumage like that of a duck teal, but with
every feather marked with a shell or scale pattern, and about the
size of a hen wigeon. I am inclined to think that it is a female

74 INVERERNE.

garganey (anas querquedula). Besides these birds, there were
immense Hocks of coots arid numbers of moorhens, &c. One
swan only is at present on the loch, which, from its half-frozen
state, is not in good condition for wildfowl. In the dusk we
took up position near some potato fields, where the potatoes had
not been raised in consequence of the disease in the plant. Here
we killed several mallards and ducks. These birds feed greedily
on the half-rotten potatoes.

February 16th. — Shot wildfowl again at the lake. There
seems to be an immense proportion of drakes amongst the wigeon.
These birds have begun to pair, and flew about towards evening
in pairs. We placed ourselves this evening at dusk in the line
of flight taken by the wigeon from the lake to their feeding-
places on the grass fields bordering the water's edge. At dusk
the wigeon flew as fast as the flocks could succeed each other,
sometimes in small companies, sometimes in pairs. They utter a
peculiar whistle when on wing, different to their whistle when
feeding or swimming. 1 shot five myself as they passed — all
drakes. Out of ten wigeon which we killed this evening only
one was a duck.

The rooks begin to collect in the ash trees at Gordonstown,
where they breed, making a great noise in the morning. I also
heard the spring cry of the kestrel hawk.

[February 20th. — Wild cats are brindled grey, and I have
observed that domestic cats of that colour are more inclined
to take to the woods and hunt for themselves than others.
When they do so, they grow very large and are most destructive
to game of all kinds.

A large cat of this colour found out some tame rabbits
belonging to my boys and killed several of them. At last we
saw him come out of a hole where some white rabbits were
breeding, and he was shot. The brute had evidently been living
on them for some time. I first discovered that he was in the
hole by the old rabbits showing alarm and watching the mouth
of the hole with erect ears.] *

* [See "Sport in Moray, 1882," p. 39.— ED.]

INVEREHNE. 75

February 20tJi. — Saw a pair of crested cormorants,^ at least
I consider the birds which I saw to be of this kind. They had
the white mark on the hip, and appeared to be different from the
cormorants which I usually see here, both in being of a dark
colour and of a shorter and heavier shape.

February 2 1st. — Tracks of three otters in the Burn of Moy.
The tracks on the banks are always going up stream, as the otter
fishes all the way down, and seldom leaves the water till he has
done fishing ; when, on returning up the stream to his daily
hiding-place, he frequently comes out on the sandy banks, etc.

February 24:th. — liennie brought in a wild swan — weight,
18 Ib. ; breadth, 7 feet 1 inch. He shot it in a small pool, near
which he was waiting for wild ducks yesterday evening. After
he had fired at it with duck shot, the bird Hew about thirty
yards, when one of its wing bones broke close to the body,
having been cracked by the shot, and then broke entirely by the
weight of the bird. Kennie goes this evening to wait for the
otter in Moy Burn. He expects to get a shot as it goes down
one of the shallow fords of the stream. Going down the burn
towards the sea, the otter fishes all the way, seldom leaving the
water ; but having eaten all he requires and reached the end of
the stream, he then returns up to his hiding-place under some
root or tree two or three miles up the water. In going up the
otter comes very frequently out of the water, sometimes climbing
up the bank and sometimes walking along the beds of shingle
and gravel which occur in his way, at all events avoiding all the
strong currents, streams, and waterfalls.

February 26th. — Shot some hares on the Calif er, as they are
not at all getting worse yet, though we generally find them now
being in pairs, that is, within fifty or one hundred yards of each
other. Great flocks of peewits about. In skinning the swan I
was much struck with the immense quantity of fat being all over
his body. The quill feathers are so strong that, although several
of them had been struck with No. 1 shot, it had not penetrated
through them, but had evidently rebounded, as they would have

* [The shag.— ED.]

76

INVERERNE.

done from a stone wall. Wood would have been pierced through
with them.

February 27th. — Great numbers of thrushes have appeared
about the house for the last two days. I at first thought that
they were redwings, from the flocks in which they are seen.

M A E C H.

March \.st. — Shot wild ducks on the Loch of Spynie.
Although I only killed three mallards, a teal, and a snipe, I was
much amused and interested by seeing the immense flocks of
wildfowl that were congregated on and about the loch. Mallards,
wigeon, teal, pintail ducks, pochards, a few sheldrakes, great
numbers of bald coots and waterhens, snipe, sea-gulls, redshanks,
and clouds of lapwings and curlews. The teal kept up a constant
whistling during the whole day, as did the wigeon. All of the
different ducks were pairing, and although on the water they
appeared to be in one confused mass, as soon as they rose, I
observed that they all flew to and fro in pairs. Even in the
great flights as they passed from one end of the loch to the
other, every flock was subdivided into pairs, which had a very
curious effect in the air. I do not know a prettier sight than a
vast number of waterfowl such as I saw to-day filling the water
and air above it, and uttering their various cries. The coot's
manner of rising is very peculiar — flapping and rushing along
the water for twenty yards before he gets well on the wing,
making a great noise and sending the water in all directions
around him. Once on wing the coot has a great resemblance to

78 INVERERNE.

a blackcock in manner of flight, etc. On the water this bird
swims very high, giving one the idea of a blackened bladder
floating about. The wigeon, on the contrary, swims very flat
and low in the water, but on wing is quick and sharp in its
movements. The teal has a sudden and rapid, but unsteady
flight.

There are a great many marks of otters about the loch at
this season of the year. I conclude that they find plenty of
flounders and eels in the muddy ditches and canals. The otters
about Spynie sit in the rushes on the small islands making seats
like those of a hare. Eennie caught a very beautiful pochard
duck, which must have received some hurt to prevent its flying,
although it was to all appearance uninjured. It is in very
perfect plumage, and does not seem at all shy. The eye of this
bird is of a very peculiar blood-red colour, and has a very bold
and fiery appearance. The pochard is a remarkably heavy bird
for its size. Captain C. tells me that they are very good eating.
The wigeon are particularly good and free from any fishy or
weedy flavour on this loch, owing to their feeding so much on
the grass fields near the edge of the loch.

We started several hares which were lying in perfectly wet
seats some distance in the rushes. Saw badger tracks about the
loch. The keeper catches mallards with snares made of a single
fine wire set in the furrows of the fields near the water. He
complains that the grey crows kill most of the young waterfowl.
These crows are bred on the adjoining property, but he intends
to poison them this spring. The rooks have returned to their
breeding-places, and were very busy building their nests to-day,
carrying up sticks from every direction.

March 2nd. — The pochard which I brought home yesterday
alive is still tame, and eats worms fearlessly from the children's
hands. They gave him a water trough with a quantity of weeds
taken out of the burn, which he appears to be very fond of. A
great many wigeon feeding about the island ; a large proportion of
them seem to be hens, whereas on Spynie the greater proportion
seem to be drakes.

INVERERNE. 79

March 3rd. — Immense Hocks of oyster- catchers on the sand-
banks. The pochard, which the boys have in a little yard, is
perfectly tame, taking worms from their hands. When it takes
a worm from the ground, it generally washes it in the water
before swallowing it. Rennie laid wait for the otter again last
night at the Moy Burn, but it seems that the animal twice
passed him without his getting a shot. The old man is not so
quiet (I suspect) as he has been. Fine warm day, though there
is a very large quantity of snow on the hills, more than is usual.

I heard the long- tail ducks making a great noise in the bay
this afternoon. Their cry sounds more like some musical in-
strument than the note of a bird. The wood-pigeons feed very
much on the newly ploughed fields, apparently picking up the
seeds and grains that are exposed by turning up the ground.

March kth. — Went to hunt for roe in Burgie Woods, but we
did not get a shot. The grey crows calling all day in the woods ;
great numbers of golden-crested wrens and of creepers searching
the fir trees through the whole wood for insects. Also numbers
of bullfinches. I killed a jacksnipe near the river.

Captain S.'s keeper told me a curious anecdote, which
strongly displays the great affection which birds have for their
mates. He had set some traps for wild geese near a marsh in
Berwickshire, but was prevented looking at them by some un-
expected business for two or three days. When he did look at
his traps, he found a hen grouse caught in one of them. The
bird was not much injured, and the cock bird was close to her,
and had brought (to use the keeper's expression) " a hatful " of
small tender shoots of heather, and had laid them down all
round his mate, seeing that she was unable to move and search
for food herself.

I have known a cock pigeon come to feed his hen when she
was caught in a horsehair snare, but I had no idea grouse had
the same strong attachment to each other. This happened in
the month of April, when the grouse would have been paired and
preparing to breed.

March 8th. — The male hares have grown so small that they

80 INVERERNE.

frequently look scarcely larger than rabbits, whereas the female
hares appear to be fatter than at any time of the year.

Great numbers of black-headed gulls both in the fields and
on the bay. In the fields they follow every plough that is at
work, picking up the worms and grubs that are turned up.
Einged dotterels also are come in flocks.

March 9th. — Went to Lochlee. Saw no swans or geese,
but great numbers of mallard, wigeon, and teal, a few golden-
eyes and morillons, but was unlucky in getting few shots. I
saw tracks of several roe in the moss coming home, but no ducks
anywhere, except about the lochs. Saw also two or three jack-
snipe. The ground covered with snow by eight o'clock this
evening. The hills were white in the middle of the day. (Wind
KE.)

A very fine drake wigeon which I killed to-day was not
nearly in full plumage, though a remarkably heavy and large
bird.

March 1 Oth. — The ground covered with snow, and in the
evening a hard frost. Thousands of larks and golden plovers in
the fields, and a great many mallards in the open pools about
the island.

All the wigeon which I killed this winter have been in very
good condition. The black-backed gulls very noisy in the bay.

March 12th. — From Snowie I went beyond Milton Brodie to
the Moss of Erneside to look for geese, but saw none. Indeed,
there is scarcely an acre of ground in the whole country un-
disturbed, what with sheep, cattle, men, women, and herd boys, and
in all the low country there is not a safe place for a partridge or
other bird to build her nest in. Eennie complains loudly of the
country being " quite spoilt by drainage and improvements."

March 1 3th. — Walked to Forres and to the Moy Burn,
where there were several otter tracks. As usual all the tracks
on the banks were going up the stream, showing that the animal
does not leave the water when going down to fish.

March 16th. — I walked to-day across the sandhills as far as
the shore. In a kind of loch made by the sea, I saw a great

INVEREKNE, 81

number of sheldrakes. As the tide left them they began feed-
ing, walking quickly about and poking their bills under the
grass and weeds for any small shells or marine insects that they
might find. This kind of duck moves about on shore with a
very different gait to that of the common mallard. Instead of
the waddle of the mallard, the sheldrake walks about with a
light active step and erect carriage, more resembling that of the
wild goose than any other bird. Altogether the sheldrake is a
peculiarly handsome and showy bird, and I have no doubt would
with a little trouble be made available in the poultry yard, as
they are easily domesticated, although those killed on the sea-
shore have a fishy flavour. If fed on the same food as tame
ducks, their flesh would soon lose all disagreeable taste. I
saw to-day a few of the white-fronted geese pass over my head.
The bean goose appears here regularly as soon as the oats are
sown.

March 1*7 th. — Walked to-day towards Findhorn. The tide
was heavier than I ever remember seeing it. A few wigeon
were about the bay, and several mallards. The river in flood
from the snow melted by the high south-west wind, which
invariably makes the river rise at this season.

March 18th. — The river was so high this morning that the
ferryman between this and Moy could not cross, which prevented
my going to Lochlee as I had intended doing.

March 19th. — A fine, warm day. Went to Lochlee, where
we saw great numbers of mallards, wigeon, and teal, several
badger tracks along the tracks in the heather, etc., and along the
side of the lochs. Otter tracks along the burn.

March 20th. — Fished in the river and caught a number of
sea-trout from 1 Ib. to ^ Ib. each ; some of them in very good
condition. A large trout of 4 Ib. rose to my fly two or three
times without taking, so I put on a small black midge, and he
took it immediately, and after some trouble I killed him. The
best fly at this season in the Findhorn is a crimson body silver
twist black hackle and wigeon or teal wing. The sea-trout here
at this season certainly take this fly in preference to any other

F

82 INVERERNE.

that I can find. I saw a badger track near the sea to-day in a
place certainly three or four miles from any cover or hole inhabited
by these animals. They seem to be great wanderers at this time
of year.

March 22nd. — In the evening, waited for ducks near the
river. Killed two wigeon ; the drake still not in full plumage.
Killed some fresh-run sea-trout in the morning. Fish have
more instinct than we give them credit for. I saw a trout
to-day (about six inches long) that had been left in a small
pool by a rise of the river making its way over the dry stones
over a ridge that separated the pool it was in from the river, the
distance being a full yard. When it saw us, the trout imme-
diately turned itself round and wriggled back into the pool it
had come from. This seems so very extraordinary a story that
I should be almost afraid of telling it to any person ; nevertheless
it is true.

The duck's bill is a very curious and perfect piece of
" mechanism." The end is full of the most delicate nerves, with
which the bird can discover the small worms, etc. that it preys
on under the mud. The end of the woodcock and curlew are
furnished in the same manner, but apparently not so completely
as the duck ; whereas the bill of the oyster-catcher is as hard
as ivory at the tip, the bird using it more for breaking open
shell-fish than for digging in the mud.

E[ennie] tells me that it is a most amusing sight to see an old
otter teach her young ones to fish. An old otter (accompanied
by a couple of young ones when fishing in a burn or river) on
catching a good-sized fish carries it to the bank and gives a loud,
shrill kind of cry between a whistle and a blowing noise. The
young ones immediately hasten up, tumbling over each other in
their eagerness to get to the fish. The quickest takes hold of it,
and then they commence tugging and pulling at it like two
puppies at a bone. At last the old one interferes and drives
away one of the young ones. She then continues her fishing,
and generally soon catches some more prey. I see the otter
tracks very much about the small pools at the end of the river,

INVEREENE. 83

where they appear to hunt for flounders, etc. left by the tide.
The tracks that we see are almost invariably going up the river,
showing that the animal keeps the course of the stream in her
downward course, but on coming up frequently leaves the water
to go a few yards along the bank. They often, too, take a short
cut overland from one bend of the river to another when return-
ing after their night's fishing.

March 27th. — I saw some large flocks of geese coming into
the bay this evening. The number of gulls, sandpipers, peewits,
etc. is quite incredible. Fished in the river and caught several
sea trout, some fresh run, others lean and bad ; also a few yellow
trout.

March 28th. — A cold, sleety day, and the fields even about
the house covered with snow, and quite white in the evening.
(Wind N.E.)

The golden plovers which I now see are becoming black on
the breast.

March 29th. — Walked to-day seven or eight miles eastwards
in hopes of seeing geese, but found none. Killed some mallards,
snipe, etc. Curlews in large flocks in the fields. Much snow on
the hills.

March 30th. — Cold, sleet, and snow. The hills as much
covered with snow as they have been all the "winter. Six swans
came into the bay this evening, and near dusk flew westwards
towards Lochlee. Some brent geese and great numbers of
wigeon and mallard. The latter appear to have been driven
down again from the high ground. It is observable that the
wigeon in the bay here are seldom in such good and forward
plumage as those which I see in the fresh-water lakes, or on the
coast of the more exposed parts of the Firth. It is singular
where all the grey geese (usually so numerous at this season) are
this year.

Rooks have eggs, as I see the shells under their nests of
eggs that have been broken.

March 3 1st. — In the bay to-day — mallard, sheldrake, wigeon,
brent geese, cormorant, curlew, oyster-catcher, whimbrel, redshank,

84

INVERERNE.

ringed dotterel, and large flights of different sandpipers, etc. I
observed a peculiarity in the flight of the oyster-catchers and
whimbrels. Large flocks of these birds were constantly alighting
on a small island near where I was concealed. The birds in-
variably flew down wind to sixty or eighty yards to the leeward
of the spot on which they intended to pitch, and then turning
round flew back against the wind and alighted with their heads
to windward. Of the hundreds that were on the island, not one
pitched in any other manner. The snow and rough weather seem
to have driven all the grey geese southwards again. All the
birds perfectly understand the alarm note of the carrion crow,
and I often lose a shot by these birds giving notice of the presence
of an enemy as they fly overhead.

A P K I L.

April 2nd. — Cold, snowy day. Wind NJE. A larger flock
of brent geese in the bay.

At this season the salmon and trout appear to lie in the dead
water of a pool, or quite at the tail of the stream so as to be out
of the strength of the run, not having the same power of resisting
the water as they have in the warmer weather. Cold as the
water is, however, they take a fly that suits them, though
certainly there are no living flies to be had by then.

The field mice shut up the entrances of their holes during
the cold weather.

April 4:th. — Showers from the west, but no break in the
snow on the hills. The water-ouzels have entirely disappeared
from the burn near the sea, having probably gone farther up the
country to breed.

April 6th. — The boys found some rooks' eggs and peewits'

86 INVERERNE.

eggs. The latter birds seem to commence several nests before
they determine on laying their eggs in anyone, as I frequently see
three or four nests begun all near each other, and the peewits are
far too quarrelsome to allow of these being nests of different birds
built so near to each other. By the time that their four eggs are
laid, they generally collect a considerable quantity of straw roots
or sticks in their nests, appearing to increase it with every egg
that they lay. Some grey geese were seen to-day. We caught
a beautiful brent goose in a trap on a grassy island, which is
generally covered by the sea at high water.

April 7th. — Aurora borealis very bright in the evening.
R[ennie] tells me that he has frequently fancied that he has
heard the aurora. He expressed the noise as like the rustling
of dry leaves in gusts of wind. From the opportunities had by
a man of his pursuits (i.e., watching motionless and noiselessly
during the night for otters, etc.), 1 have no doubt but that he is
quite correct, more particularly as I did not lead to the observa-
tion by any question or remark of my own.

April 8th. — It blew a hurricane to-day from the W.N.W.
with cold showers. We anticipated this kind of weather from
the brightness of the aurora last night. Large flocks of brent
geese driven into the bay. The birds scarcely able to move
from the ground in exposed places. I saw a sea-gull caught by
the wind in the air and turned over five or six times entirely
before it could recover its balance and get its head to wind-
ward.

April 9th. — Walked eastwards to look for geese. Saw none.
The rooks' eggs seem to have all been blown out of the nests
by the high wind of yesterday. There is a very deep covering
of snow on all the hills, much increased since yesterday. (Wind
(KW.

April 12th. — I caught some fine sea trout in good condition
in the river, though the water was high and the wind in the
east. Some flocks of wigeon still remain. We picked up a few
plovers' eggs. They lay principally in the fallow fields, or in the
fields where the oats have been lately sown and harrowed in.

INVERERNE. 87

April 17th. — To-day being a soft and rainy clay, immense
numbers of wild geese arrived from southwards, brought north-
wards by the disappearance of the snow. These birds have
arrived much later this year than they usually do, being pro-
bably delayed by the long continuance of winter and frost.
There are large flocks of the bean goose, known by their dark
coloured heads and necks. The large light coloured grey geese
remain in small Hocks of six to twelve, and are easily dis-
tinguished from the other geese by their lighter colour and
slower movements. They frequent clover and green wheat fields
more than the new sown grain.

The arrival of the geese to-day was worth seeing. An
immense body of 300 or 400 birds arrived first in one flock.
As soon as they were above the sands, every bird appeared to
commence calling, making together a noise that first attracted
our attention, though we were nearly a mile from the place.
After flying to and fro a short time above the bay, they broke
off into different companies, and dispersed through the country
looking for feeding-places. We could see the flocks as they
wheeled round and round different new sown fields looking-
for places to alight. All the afternoon fresh flocks came in.

April ~L8th. — Though the snow is entirely washed away
here and on the lower hills, the rain of yesterday must
have been snow on Wevis, as it is entirely covered with a
new coating. Blackbirds, thrushes, and hedge-sparrows have
eggs. I rode up to the heronry to-day.^ The number of herons
is very much diminished, but the rooks have increased very
much. The keeper of Sir W. Gumming, who I saw up there,
tells me that he had been climbing to the jackdaws' nests (these
birds breed in great numbers in the rocks on the opposite side
of the river to the herons). The jackdaws had no eggs of their
own yet, but he showed me a whole handful of the shells of
herons' eggs which he had found about the nests of the jackdaws,
these birds evidently being in the habit of constantly plundering
the nests of their neighbours, and of carrying off the eggs to eat

* Heronry now extinct. — See "Sport in Moray, 1882," p. 52'.

8 8 IK VERERNE.

them at their leisure. There were a great many kestrel hawks
flying about the rocks near the river. We saw six or eight
at once in several places. Amongst the rooks we saw one that
was nearly white.

April 19^. — To-day Eennie and myself killed four grey
geese. The strength and watchfulness of these birds in this
country, where they are so much harassed, makes them very
difficult to kill. Some that we killed were feeding on new sown
peas, and others on new sown barley. There seems to be a
great number of them just now in the country.

April 20th. — I saw a barn owl sitting on a tree overhanging
one of the highest cliffs of the river.

The kestrel hawks are very numerous. We saw one fly into
a tree calling loudly, and carrying something, a small bird or
mouse, in its beak. Presently another hawk of the same kind
came, and the first bird immediately gave its prey up to the
last comer, who carried it off. The bird who brought the mouse
carried it in its beak, but the one who received it carried it off
in its claws.

April 23rd. — I went again to look for wild geese, but
though we saw a great number and several large flocks evidently
newly arrived, searching over the country for good feeding-
places, we could not get a shot. One time when we nearly had
succeeded, the flock took alarm at the cries of some rooks
who saw us and flew off. I have more than once lost a chance
at geese by these birds giving alarm. The flights of geese as
they pass over have a very picturesque effect — flying in the
shape of a V, with generally a large bird at the head or point of
the V, and signalling to each other with an occasional cry.
When about to alight they break their rank and collect in a con-
fused mass. When they arrive near their resting-place on the
sands, the whole flock frequently dart off in different directions,
shooting through the air and performing evolutions that one
would scarcely suspect so heavy a bird could accomplish. Beans
and peas seem their favourite food.

April 24th. — Wild goose shooting omnium rerum incertissima.

INVEEERNE. 80

After labouring half the day, when the whole flock were all but
within shot of us, two large gulls came sailing over our heads,
and seeing us, they hovered over us, uttering cries of alarm
louder and louder, till the geese took fright and flew off.
Another chance I lost to-day from some curlews giving the
alarm. However, I killed one fine goose. Kestrel and grey
crows' eggs.

April 26th. — Saw two sand-martins to-day; the first of the
swallow kind that I have seen this year. I also heard some
terns calling in the bay. A great many geese flying to and fro
to the new sown fields.

April 29th. — In the fir wood beyond Kinloss we found the
nest of the long-eared owl, with one young bird above half-grown,
with the brightest yellow eyes, and one rotten egg. The owl had
apparently taken possession of an old crow's nest on the top of a
fir tree, in rather an open place of the wood. I saw a house
swallow to-day.

It is curious how very unlike each other are the eggs of
some birds. The grey crow, for instance, whose nest we also
found in the same wood with four eggs.

April 30th. — A stormy, wild day. The wind in every
quarter. We caught a number of trout. The wild geese
appear to have mostly gone away. I saw but very few about
the bay to-day. The fieldfares have not yet all gone.

MAY.

May 1st. — A stormy, thundery day. Swallows as well as
martins are becoming tolerably common. The geese generally
leave here about the 3rd or 4th May. From the quantity of
snow on the hills to the north this season, they should naturally
remain longer, but I have seen very few for the last two or three
days.

To-day is the first day on which I have seen any quantity of
nies on the river, but all the morning the streams were covered
with a kind of grey-blue gnat, which the trout were feeding on
most greedily.

It is remarkable that the insectivorous birds appear to be the
first to have eggs, such as the thrush, blackbird, robin, hedge-
sparrow, when the chaffinch, greenfinch, and the different bunt-
ings, etc., have not yet commenced laying, although busy build-
ing. I shot a brown owl to-night.

May 3rd. — In the woods. Saw the cuckoo for the first time
this year. Also crossbills in pairs, siskins, etc. etc.

May 1th. — We heard the land-rail to-day for the first time,
being a week after the usual time.

May 8th. — The land-rails begin to be numerous. Swifts as
well as the other swallows and martins appear. I also saw
several wheatears to-day, and whitethroats.

INVERERNE. 9 1

May 9th. — Rainy mist from the east. Great numbers of
martins, etc. The common river flies, such as the stone fly, etc.,
are very backward in appearing this year. Mallards in flocks,
the ducks beginning to set. The oyster-catchers are now in
larger flocks than at any other season.

May 10th. — Caught some fine sea trout with small black
gnats. I killed some land-rails to-day. The land-rail is a
curious mixture of cunning and simplicity, at one time gliding in
the most hidden arid cunning manner through the grass, so as to
appear more like a weasel than a bird, and then standing upright
within a few yards of its pursuer, uttering its loud and hard
croak. I have seen one standing actually between the legs of a
cow croaking as loud as it could, and seeming perfectly to dis-
tinguish the cow from its dreaded enemy the dog.

May 12th. — W. Stuart caught a salmon of 22 Ib. ; a very
rare fish in this river, the general size of salmon being from 7
to 10 Ib. in the Findhorn. The banks of the river are now very
beautiful, the bird-cherry and other flowering shrubs being in
full bloom. Corncrakes numerous.

May 17 th. — Wind N.E. Cold and wintry. The water very
cold. Fly fishing to-day I caught a martin, who dashed at the
artificial fly. I do not understand why the oyster-catchers remain
in large flocks about the shore, as 1 should" suppose that they
must now be laying. Young thrushes and robins have already
left the nest. P. Gumming dined here. The mountains have as
white a covering of snow as they have had all the winter.

May 18th. — Found a partridge's nest with five eggs in a
clover-field. The nest, etc., carefully covered with dry grass.

May 19th. — I find that the large black-backed gull, as well
as the smaller kinds, feed on grain whenever they find it in the
fields, also on turnip.

May 21st. — Harry caught a grilse to-day of 2^ Ib.

May 23rd. — The land-rails already have several eggs, as
have the whitethroats and other late-coming birds.

May 2oth. — Left Invererne for Nairn.

May 26th. — At Nairn to-day the fisherman found a fine

92 INVERERNE.

northern diver drowned in the salmon stake nets. It appears
that this is not a rare occurrence at this season. The weight
appeared at least 16 Ib. I saw a black guillemot on the
water.

May 28th. — Walked to-day to Lochlee. We saw large nests
made by the coots and dabchicks. They pile up a great
quantity of rushes in shallow water amongst the weeds, till they
have made a strong platform. We saw a large brood of young
ducks following their mother.

May 30th. — As the tide begins to ebb, great numbers of
terns are seen flying slowly (against the wind) along the water
edge, and dropping like a stone into the shallow water. After
remaining some moments under the water, they appear again
with a sand-eel in the bill. They seem to strike with the most
unerring aim, and the little fish has always the mark of the
bird's bill just behind the head. I have seen the terns carrying
the sand-eels three or four miles inland to their young. Their
quickness in catching their prey must be very great, as nothing
is quicker or more active in eluding pursuit than the sand-eel.
Sometimes (indeed frequently) the terns pursue their prey in deep
water several hundred yards from the shore.

NAIRN.

JUNE.

June 1st. — In the woods at Daltra I saw several pairs of
crossbills, but could not find any nest, though I have no doubt
that they do breed here, from my seeing them at all seasons. I
also saw redstarts, siskins, a great many woodcocks, etc. On
Loch Belivat we found immense numbers of the black-headed
gulls breeding amongst the rushes on the islands, and even upon
the branches of some willow trees at the height of several feet
from the ground ; in fact, wherever could be found anything to
support a nest, one was placed. The variety of colour in the
eggs was very striking. Every shade of mottled-brown and
green. Three is the number which each bird lays. Some had
hatched. The young birds are beautifully marked, like tortoise-
shell more than anything else. The smell on the islands was
quite overpowering from the quantity of accumulated dung, etc.
of the birds, sending up an odour like an uncleaned fowl-house.
There were a great many mallards on the loch, but no ducks, the
latter having either broods of young by this time, or being em-
ployed in sitting on eggs. Also a few drake teal were flying
about the edges of the water. Coots and all other birds seemed
quite banished from the rushes by the confusion and clamour
of the gulls. The eggs of the latter are very large in proportion

94 NAIRN.

to the size of the bird. They are as good as plovers' eggs, but
more opaque in the white when boiled.

June sth. — At Lochlee yesterday I see the coots are still
building, making the most wonderfully large heaps of rushes, etc.
for their nests. I shot a swift walking home. The bird, which
was not quite dead, struck its short strong claws through the
finger of the boy who picked it up.

June *llh. — Walked to Lochlee to put in a few hooks
baited with small trout, in order to see if any fish take them.
The people here say that there are no fish in the loch, but as
otters are often seen there, I fancy that there must be some
kind of fish.

June 8th. — I found on my lines in Lochlee some very large
eels of 4 and 3^ Ib. weight. We also took some eggs of the
bald coot. The nests of these birds, though very large, are more
like floating rafts than fixtures. One we found was attached to
a floating branch that had fallen into the water, and though from
the low state of the water just now the branch and nest were
grounded on a shallow, on the least rise of the loch they must
have been afloat. We also found a teal's nest with eight eggs in
a small tuft of heather standing like an island, just large enough
to hold the nest in the midst of a wet place. The heather was
high, and the nest and eggs were entirely concealed. If a dog
had not frightened the bird off, we should have never found it.
Nothing could be more neat and warm than the nest, care-
fully lined as it was with beautiful down, and arched over with
heather and long grass.

June 10 th. — Went to Lochlee to put in eel lines. The
wind so rough that we had difficulty in doing so properly. A
pair of hooded crows near the loch seem to bring eggs of all
kinds to a certain spot near the water. I find shells of partridge,
wild duck, and many other eggs.

June llth. — Took up lines at Lochlee. Several eels, but
many of the hooks broken from getting into weeds, etc. Crows
near Lochlee seem to have fallen on a partridge's nest, as I
constantly see fresh shells brought now.

NAIRN. 95

June 15th. — In the pools near the river I see a number of
worms, having exactly the appearance of living horse-hair, some
light-coloured and others black. There is a common supposition
that these worms are nothing but horse-hair come into life from a
long immersion in water. What they really are it is difficult to say.
To the naked eye, both extremities are alike with neither head nor
tail. If kept for some time out of water, they become quite dry
and apparently lifeless, but on being put into the water again they
immediately (or in a short time) become as lively as ever.^

The small river of Nairn is very high and dirty, and the sea
for a considerable distance out very much discoloured with the
river water. This arises in a great measure from the fresh water
being lighter than the salt, and not mixing immediately, but re-
maining on the surface. I observe this particularly about the
last hour of the flow of the tide, when it begins to be rather
slack, as then the river runs strongly outwards, while there is a
rapid current in a contrary direction underneath the surface made
by the tide running. One sees the lighter sticks, corks, etc.
floating rapidly one way, while weed and heavier substances
which keep nearer to the bottom keep crossing them in their
passage up the river, apparently moving against the stream.

June 16th. — Walked to Lochlee with Freebairn. Found
that the hooded crows had ta.ken all the eggs from the teal's
nest which we had seen there last week.

June 18th. — Constant rain, but warm days intervening, and
an immense growth in fields and gardens.

The eels in Lochlee seem innumerable. They probably
have never been disturbed nor killed, excepting by otters or
herons, the country people here having a great prejudice against
eating or even touching them.

The Nairn came down (like the Findhorn and other mountain
streams) in a moment one day this week, rising several feet at
once. A flood of this kind carries out all the slimy green weed,
etc. that collects in the pools of the river. The sea for some
distance out is quite muddy from the river water during a flood.
* See "Sport in Moray, 1882," p. 155, footnote.

96 NAIRN.

June 25th. — I rowed to-day to the "old bar" about four or
five miles from here. Found some eggs of tern and the lesser
tern. Numbers of these birds were flying about, but the eggs
are so very similar in colour to the stones amongst which they
are laid, that it is not easy to find them. Going there we put
out a line for flounders and took it up on returning, catching
about fifty flounders, a gurnet, and a large cod. The latter was
long and lean as an eel, and had lost one eye. The men took it
to bait their crab-traps with, as it was quite unfit for use in any
other way. Immense numbers of flounders are left at low water
in the pools about the bar.

June 28th. — Went to Cromarty rocks to shoot rock-pigeons,
but saw very few. Great numbers of goats playing about on the
very edges of precipices. A few gurnets rose at the white-fly,
with which we fished going across.

June 29th. — Went to-day with Freebairn to the "old bar"
to fish for flounders. We caught a great number, and one small
turbot. Found also some terns and ringed dotterels' eggs. Shot
a guillemot on the way. We caught on the lines some gurnets,
as well as flounders. The gurnet takes sand-eels better than any
other bait. The flounders, when opened, are full of small shell-
fish always. The sand-eels are caught in great numbers on the
sandbanks, which are left bare by the ebb of the spring tides.
The people procure them by turning up the sand to the depth of
about three inches.

NAIRN. 9*7

July Sth. — Went to set lines in Lochlee. Saw there a
flock of pochards, several broods of teal and ducks, and tracks
of small and large badgers about the wet ground near the loch.
I shot a fine roebuck coming home. He had lost one horn, other-
wise he would have had a very handsome head.

July 10th. — The young wild ducks are now just ready to fly.

July 12th. — The herring boats all go out to-day. The Nairn
boats engage to sell all their fish to fishcurers at Helmsdale,
etc., and they therefore remain from home six weeks, putting
in at Helmsdale every Saturday night till the following Monday.
There are about sixty-five boats belonging to Nairn. Each boat
costs, with rigging, nets, etc., about £26. The crew in each con-
sists of five hands. The fishermen have a great prejudice
against any boat being manned entirely by one family, in case
of any accident happening.

July 1 6th. — Walked to a wood three miles west of this. Saw
some roe and many marks of foxes. Remains of fowls, ducks,
etc. about the mouths of the holes. I saw also a woodcock.

August 5th. — I see that the wild ducks have their crops quite
full of the seeds of different grasses, etc. A fisherman brought me
to-day a most extraordinary fish — length, 3 feet 6 inches ; breadth,
6 inches (vertically), and perfectly flat, not horizontally like a
flounder, but vertically. Colour — silver-blue, with a beautiful
transparent fin of a rose colour running the whole length of
its back, and broad fan-like tail, consisting of a transparent
rose-coloured membrane. The fish, too, had a peculiar power
of elongating its head, which lengthened exactly like a telescope.
The oldest fishermen say that they never saw or heard of such a
fish before.^

August 18th. — Saw to-day in a wood near Lochlee the
marks of where two roebucks had either been fighting or chasing
each other round and round a small tree. The ground was
beaten in a ring round the tree, as if an animal had been tied to
the tree and had been endeavouring to get away.

September 10th. — Mr Dunbar, of Bonar Bridge, had brought

* See " Sport in Moray, 1882," p. 201.

a

98 NAIRN.

to him to-day a white- tailed eagle — perfectly white — a male
bird, and apparently not white from age. I saw several eagles
about the high mountains in that country, ptarmigan also, and
some deer. The stags' horns this year are by no means remark-
able for size. The spring was backward, and they had not good
feeding at the season when they were getting their new horns.

September 16th. — Keturned home; the weather being too bad
for a longer season.

Saw wigeon about Lochlee, the first that I have seen this
season.

October 19th. — Large flock of wild geese passing from the
north southwards. Also one swan on Lochlee. Last year the
first geese that I saw were on the 12th of this month. Harry
killed a godwit yesterday and a purre.

I saw a peregrine in chase of a wild duck to-day, the hawk
endeavouring to keep under the duck always to prevent her
getting to the water. The birds went at a tremendous rate,
till I lost sight of them in the distance.

November 1st. — Saw snow-birds to-day for first time. Large
flocks of siskins in the woods. The hares seem to have collected
very much in the low grounds.

December *lth. — Wild swans on Lochlee, and a greater
number of wigeon, etc. than usual. Also a great deal of
aurora, all foretelling rough or frosty weather.

December 13th. — Great number of wild ducks, etc. in
the loch, but the weather is so fine that they all go to sea
as soon as disturbed. The black-cocks wander very much,
and when there is no wind, are always found on the tops of
the trees.

December 25th. — The weather for some days past has been
quiet, but severe frost. Lochlee to-day is entirely frozen over,
and the wild ducks, wigeon, etc. are all about the salt water bay
at the bar. There are a great many black game, particularly
cocks, come down to the lower grounds. Very few woodcocks as
yet, and scarcely a snipe to be seen.

1848.

January 8th. — Thaw in the morning, but severe frost in
afternoon. The wood -pigeons (in feeding on turnips) do not
dig into the root at all, or even into the heart of the green,
but eat off the edges of the leaves, doing really no mischief.
The rooks dig great holes into the roots themselves.

February 9th. — When the river is flooded, or much filled
with floating ice, the otters here take to the small ditches
and springs which remain unfrozen, to look for eels, and hunt
up and down these places to great distances from their usual
abode.

I often observe that when I kill a single duck out of a flock,
after a short time one of the flock (probably the mate of the
dead bird) returns to near the place where it last saw the dead

1'KRKGIUXK.

NAIRN. 101

one, and appears to look most anxiously for it. The same thing
is observable with swans. If I kill one out of a pair of these
birds, the remaining one will not leave the place, but remains
hovering about, and returns constantly to the dead body of
its mate.

I shot a female pochard to-day (one out of a flock). Presently
a drake of the same species leaves the main flock, and returning
to the place, hovers and swims about restlessly and eagerly, look-
ing for his companion.

February llth. — The larks begin to sing now. The corn-
buntings, etc. have altered their spring note for some time back.
Eennie caught a brent-goose that had probably been wounded
somewhere. The bird is in high plumage and health apparently,
and becomes very tame, feeding fearlessly close to the children.
I have observed the same of this species of goose before.

February 26th. — Thrushes singing for the past week. Great
many geese feeding in the mosses on the roots of a coarse
red-coloured grass. Larks and fieldfares in great flocks.

March 5th. — Wood-pigeons, thrushes, missel-thrushes, black-
birds, peewits, black-headed buntings, etc. etc. have been utter-
ing their spring notes for some days past. The teal collect
about the loch, and fly about a great deal, whistling constantly.
Five wild swans still frequent the loch, three much smaller than
the other two. The latter are companions of the one that I
killed last week. The frogs are now spawning in the ditches,
and the mallards are in every pool.

March 1 1th. — The brent-geese now are in very great numbers
on the seashore, feeding on the grasses that begin to grow.
I have not seen any swans on the lochs for some days.

Bean-geese and white-fronted geese are now constantly seen
in small companies.

The badgers seem very much on the move just now, as I see
their tracks everywhere, turning up the ground like pigs, both in
the woods and in the open grounds, particularly in the turnip
fields.

March 22nd. — Dabchicks in some pools. The first which

102 NAIRN.

I have seen. There are a few white-fronted geese feeding in
certain places about the loch. The brent-geese are exceedingly
numerous on the grassy banks, which are left dry at low water.
There are a good number of woodcocks about the woods, pro-
bably birds remaining here to breed. The sheldrakes are also
coming inland.

April 5th. — Shot a white-fronted goose at Lochlee.

April 13th. — The roebucks have not yet lost the velvet from
their horns.

April 19th. — I found a wild duck's nest in a tuft of very
high heather near a peat moss, with thirteen eggs, apparently
within a week of hatching. I broke one of them to try. The
nest placed in a situation where it seemed impossible that the
young birds could ever have managed to crawl, and at some little
distance from any pools of water. I also found a grey crow's
nest with four eggs. The old bird caught my attention by
the sneaking and quiet way in which she new out of a thicket
of Scotch firs. I. also killed a leveret larger than an old rabbit.

May 3rd. — When fishing near the river I found great
numbers of young eels under the gravel, my attention being
first called to them by a Skye-terrier, which accompanied me, and
who employed himself in turning over the stones and eating the
eels which he found under them.

September 8th. — I commonly find the crabs about the rocks
near Whitburn with their shells quite soft, having just cast their
covering of last year. On some occasions the cast shell is found
quite whole, even to the covering of the eyes and horns. On the
10th I found one in this state, the crab having apparently only
just finished the operation of extracting herself, as she was living
in the crevice of the rock, close to the empty shell. What
is remarkable (but invariably the case), the animal immediately
on having cast her shell increases considerably in size to a very
great degree ; in fact, the only time that the crab has to grow in
is almost instantaneously on casting, as her skin commences
immediately to harden into a new shell, and this done, all in-
crease of size is impossible. Before casting, the flesh of the crab

NAIRN. 103

seems entirely to be turned into a watery substance enclosed in a
tough skin, which enables her to draw herself whole out of the
shell. Anyone who has seen a crab must know how impossible
it would be for the animal to drag its legs and claws through the
small joints of these parts, unless the flesh is totally changed in
size and substance. Altogether, the power of a crab to cast its
shell entire without breaking the covering of a single limb is one
of the most extraordinary things in nature.

Almost invariably, a crab, while her shell is soft and helpless,
is protected by a male crab, who remains with her, and on the
approach of danger, covers her with his body and claws, and dies
rather than leave his helpless charge. Take him away and put
him at a distance of several yards, but he returns immediately to
protect the helpless female. In a few days, however, the skin
hardens into shell, and the crab no longer needs protection.

One of the most beautiful and delicate sea-shells found here
is the patella pellucida. A small thin-shelled limpet that adheres
to the broad-leaved tangle, great beds of which grow on the rocks,
which are only left uncovered at very low tides. After any
heavy swell or storm, it is curious to see how large masses of
rock are floated to some distance by the buoyancy of the sea-
weed attached to them, which appears to act the part of a kind
of parachute in the water.

Great numbers of young gulls in their grey plumage are con-
stantly flying to and fro along the shore here now. Also a few
mallards, teal, and many kinds of sandpipers. A few days ago,
six geese were seen passing along.

Migratory birds, such as wheatears, whitethroats, redstarts,
etc. are very numerous near the coast, waiting to depart.

Kestrels and merlins are numerous also. Amongst other
birds killed by the boys for their hawk were specimens of the
tree-sparrow and rock-lark.

In some spots about the middle of September, the painted
lady butterfly tolerably numerous, but seems to be confined to
certain patches of ground.

The toad catches insects with extraordinary rapidity. Some

104

NAIRN.

who live in a cask of water in the yard catch the flies when they
settle near them. The toad, on seeing a fly, creeps up with great
caution till within an inch or two, and then, with a motion so rapid
that the eye cannot follow it, the fly is caught and swallowed.
Apparently the toad darts out his tongue, but it is impossible to
see exactly how the fly is caught. All one sees is a rapid open-
ing and shutting of the toad's mouth, down which the fly (which
was an inch or more from it) disappears as if by magic.

The frogs also feed on the flies, but do not catch and
swallow them with the same wonderful quickness.

1849.

[Edinburgh], January 3rd. — In a poulterer's shop here is a
fine male capercailzie, which was killed in a wood a few miles
south of Edinburgh.

Mr Dickson (the gunmaker) tells me tha£ a pure white egret
was killed three years ago in Fifeshire. Also that a gerfalcon
was killed on the Pentland Hills after a severe storm a few
years ago.

During this very severe weather, our hawks, both the merlin
and the Iceland falcon, seem to thrive best when left out during
the night with no shelter whatever.

January Qtk. — Mr Watson (Forth Street, Edinburgh) showed
me a hybrid between the blackcock and the grouse. This bird
had undoubted characteristics of the two species — the head most
like that of the grouse ; the breast nearly black, with white bars
like many grouse ; the back with five brown and black stripes,
scarcely darker than many grouse which I have killed ; the tail
larger than that of the grouse, and very slightly forked ; the

106 NAIRN.

legs and feet clothed like those of a grouse, but in rather a less
degree. The bird, on dissection, proved to be a male. I saw a
bird very similar killed in Kirkcudbrightshire this year, which
I have no doubt was also a hybrid of the same kind. Hybrids
between the black grouse and capercailzie are not uncommon.
Those between the black and red grouse are very rare.

In collections of eggs, the errors and wrongly named eggs
are endless.

There is most decisive difference between the young herring
and the " garvie," both of which fish are caught at the same time
in the Firth of Forth. The garvie is a shorter and deeper fish in
proportion to its size, and has also a considerably smaller head
and mouth than the other fish.

January IQth. — In the Firth I see velvet ducks, eider ducks,
scoter, scaup ducks, mallard, wigeon, Gt. divers, B. throated divers
(immature), curlews, etc. ; immense flights of sandpipers of different
kinds, apparently mostly the ash-coloured sandpipers, pitch on the
extreme point of breakwater at the end of Leith Pier. Cor-
morants perch on the lighthouse or tower at the end of the pier.

The squirrels in the country feed mostly on the seed of the
Scotch fir, cutting up the cones to get at them.

A fox appears to hunt daily along the shore to west of Granton.

Fine specimens of the grey plover in one of the poulterer's
shops.

The quails are so rank and strong- tasted which I buy here
as to be quite unfit to eat.

Found in a shop a very peculiar coloured new pheasant of a
uniform silver-grey, or French white.

The raccoons almost invariably lose their eyesight in the
Zoological Gardens here.

There is a wolf here so tame that he allows strangers to
caress him as quietly as a dog, and appears always anxious to be
taken notice of and petted.

The black-headed bunting feed indiscriminately on corn and
insects. I find in their crops a number of small beetles, and also
oats.

NAIRN.

107

The rooks in Edinburgh build in nearly every square and
garden in great numbers. They break the twigs off the trees to
build with. Some of the trees are nearly destroyed by them, all
the small twigs being broken off. During the building season
(March) the rooks are very tame in Edinburgh, "walking about
the streets close to the passers-by, and coming into the little yards
and gardens to carry off any stick that may be lying about. They
also walk about the streets in search of bits of hay, straw, etc. to
line their nests with.

In severe frost and snow, the Highlanders, who are liable to
much exposure, loosen every strap and bandage that can at all
impede the circulation of their blood, to escape being frost-bitten.
They even take off' their garters. Nevertheless, Professor Syme
says that he has eleven or twelve frost-bitten patients every
season.

ELGIN.

1851-2.

December 23rd, 1851. — The thrushes and missel-thrushes
have been singing ever since the beginning of the month.

Badgers do not remain so much in their holes during cold
weather as people suppose. I frequently find their tracks in the
snow. Not a wounded duck appears to escape them (and the foxes)
about Spynie.

I see several peregrines about, both old and young birds.

January 7th, 1852. — The woods at Loch-na-bo full of tom-
tits of three kinds, golden-crested wrens, crossbills, etc. Saw a
peregrine, a hen-harrier, a sparrow-hawk, and a merlin pass the
road near us within a few hundred yards of each other.

February 3rd. — Went to the Loch of Spynie in the afternoon.
A great many ducks of all kinds, and also large flocks of peewits.
The first time that I have seen them this spring I shot a gull (im-

ELGIN. 109

mature herring) with its crop, etc. quite full of turnip. I never
before knew that any gulls eat these plants. Very cold wind, W.

February 8th. — The birds (thrushes and chaffinches) sing
very much now in the garden. The large-headed field-mice,
which are very destructive to many plants, such as pinks, car-
nations, cabbage plants, stocks, French beans, young sweet peas,
etc., do not seem to come out of their holes in the walls much in
wet weather. These mice also peel the ash branches, the young
pink thorns, etc. which grow on the old walls. The best bait for
them seems to be pieces of apple, as they appear to be quite
vegetable eaters.

February 14A — A water-ouzel in the Lossie was singing
this morning, and chasing another bird of the same kind,
apparently a female, not being so black as the one that was
singing. They frequently both dropped into the water, arid
dived for a short time. The song is very musical and pleasing,
though short.

February 24th. — Fine. Great numbers of duck, wigeon, teal,
and one goose (I think a white-fronted goose) in the swamp
at Lochinvar.

I heard the wood-pigeon coo for the first time this year to-day.

March 23rd. — Warm and gentle rain. I see a wren building
in the garden. Several pairs of wood-pigeons -close to the house.

April *7th. — I see the eels beginning to show in the dead
pools^up the river.

A hawk to-day attacked the birds in the cages which were
outside the window, killing two birds and tearing the wing
off' a poor bullfinch, so that we were obliged to kill it.

April I Oth. — A water- ouzel's nest in the burn has two eggs.
It was built in a broken bank.

The bats fly about now round the buildings and garden.
Geese have been seen aboitt for some days, but do riot seem
to feed near this.

April 13th. — C. took the water-ouzel's nest — an immense
building for the size of the bird, the whole being fully as large as
a pail, made of moss outwardly and lined with dry grass, etc.

110 ELGIN.

April 19th. — I see in the rapid gravelly streams of the
burn a great many lampreys (five inches in length), collected
in groups of six or eight, and apparently very busily employed in
carrying about small stones about the size of a sweet pea.

The river and burn are smaller than I ever saw them, owing
to the long continued want of rain.

April 25th. — Bright and clear, but cold east wind. The
little willow wren is now in the garden. Great want of rain.
The farmers complain of their grass being entirely burnt up.

April 27th. — Peewits are hatched.

April 28th. — Young blackbirds and robins flying. Warm
rain for an hour.

April 29th. — I saw a large flock of fieldfares to-day. They
are very late. I shot one that there might be no mistake.

In Spynie I found one egg of the black-headed gull. They
have built plenty of nests, but have not laid any eggs yet.

April 30th. — In the evening we went to the Wood of Plus-
carden. The badgers were making a great noise late in the
evening, apparently frightened.

Vast numbers of wood-pigeons breed in the woods, but I think
that very few eggs are hatched owing to the crows taking them.

May 5th. — I looked for the nest of the peregrine to-day, and
found that it is placed not, as usual, on a ledge of rock, but quite
within a small hole in a place apparently more suited for a jack-
daw to build in. Below the nest at the foot of the cliff we
found a drake teal partly eaten, but quite fresh. The falcon
must have carried it about three miles.

In the woods the badgers and foxes make a great noise now
at night, barking, howling, etc.

On the 2nd the black-headed gulls have their nests in
Spynie, principally with only one egg, few with three, their
whole number.

May 10th. — We heard the land-rail, and saw swifts and fly-
catchers for the first time. We took a nest of shovellers' eggs
(10) in Spynie. Also a good many black-headed gulls' eggs.
I saw several wild ducks' nests, and also a brood or two of young

ELGIN. Ill

coots, which had just left the nest. Snipes' eggs and redshanks'
also in Spynie.

May llth. — Fished with Mr Allen, and caught a clean
salmon with a par.

We heard a bird singing in the garden whose note was new.
On watching we found that it was a blackcap, a very rare bird so
far to the north.

May 29th. — Birds in the garden now are very numerous,
particularly for a spot of ground so nearly in a town —

1. Wood-pigeon. 8. Willow-wren. 14. Tree-sparrow.

2. Cuckoo. 9. Whitethroat. 15. Greenfinch.

3. Missel-thrush. 10. Hedge-sparrow. 16. Chaffinch.

4. Thrush. 11. Long-tailed 17. Yellow-hammer.

5. Blackbird. tomtit. 18. Spotted tiy-

6. Eobin. 12. Little B. tomtit. catcher.

7. Wren. 13. Sparrow.

Besides constant visitors, such as hooded-crow, jackdaw,
siskin, sparrow-hawk and other hawks, larger titmouse, cole tit-
mouse, etc. etc., sixteen varieties breed constantly, besides the
swallows, martins, swifts, about the house.

There is scarcely a day now on which we could procure
specimens of these birds within twenty yards of the house, and,
as I said, the eggs of sixteen of them within the garden. I
might also mention golden-crested wren, bullfinch, etc., which are
frequently in the garden.

June 1st. — During a heavy shower of rain, I saw eight
young but fully fledged wrens go into a wren's nest, which was
scarcely finished, but built by some other old wrens.

June 5th. — We went to-day to take the young peregrines on
the rocks, near Hopeman.^ By letting a boy over with a rope, we
took four young birds nearly as large as the old ones, but covered
with white down. After coming home we fed them on a rabbit.

July 2nd. — There is a blackcap in the garden (a rare visitor
here), who sings most indefatigably from three in the morning

* [See "Sport in Moray, 1882," p. 114.— ED.]

112 ELGIN.

till ten at night. It was some time before I could get a sight of
the bird, as he sings always in the thickest part of the foliage.

July 26th. — In Pluscarden Wood I found a woodcock's nest
with three eggs at the foot of a tree. The forester told me that
he had flushed the old bird off it seven days back. She appeared
not to have returned. About 200 yards from the place I shot
an old woodcock, with a young one rather larger than a snipe.
They were in a dry high part of the wood, far from any marshy
or wet ground.

July 27 th. — My retriever brought to me while looking for
ducks in Spynie a water-rail about two or three days old, the old
one following the dog and uttering cries of alarm and anger. He
also caught and brought an old coot with its quill feathers all
out, so that it could not fly. The dog always kills an old coot,
though he does not hurt a wild duck in the least. I suppose
that the reason is that the coot scratches him jeverely with her
sharp claws.

August 23rd. — Immense numbers of wild ducks come now to
feed on the standing barley. Swallows and martins collect in
large flocks.

September 1 9th. — Went to Tain.

September 24th. — In woods near Tain saw a great many
crossbills.

A large stag was going about amongst the other deer,
occasionally roaring, though not regularly yet. They were,
however, rolling in the pools every night. - ,

September 30th. — Very wild day. Eight swans arrived at
Spynie. I saw that one had been wounded from a mark of
blood on his wing, but he did not seem much hurt. They were
all pure white.

October 23rd. — This season seems remarkable for a great
abundance of two different things — wood-pigeons and acorns.
The former do not feed much on acorns in this country.

I scarcely remember sitting down to eat my luncheon in any
wood in this country when shooting or fishing without a robin
appearing close to me, who watches my proceedings, and the

ELGIN.

113

moment I move away, begins picking up the crumbs which I
fling down for him. Wrens, too, are everywhere in the woods,
the fields, and on the heather.

November I8tk. — T saw to-day a white wood-pigeon on the
same farm near Elgin where I saw one several times two years ago.

November 28th. — I find the crops of the wood-pigeons full of
the seed of the dock, although there is a great extent of newly
sown wheat in every direction.

December 1st. — The wood-pigeon which I kill have in their
crops turnip leaves, the seed of ragweed, docks, a little wheat, and
a number of small potatoes as large as marbles, or larger.

December *7th. — Both yesterday and to-day it happened that
I wounded a partridge not far from the quarry wood, and on
both occasions a peregrine falcon struck the bird in the air and
carried it away before my eyes.

December l^th. — Cold day. I saw a white wood-pigeon to-
day near Pitgaveny.

18 5 3.

January 1st. — Cold wind, but fine. On the hill at Plus-
carden we heard several rumbling noises like (what I should
imagine) the sound of an earthquake.

The thrushes sing every morning in the garden.

February llth. — Returned home from London. Very deep
snow.

February 1 5th. — Deep snow. The river is so closed up with
ice and snow that the wild ducks can only settle in a few places.

Larks have quite disappeared.

February Vlih. — The ground still covered with deep snow
and frost.

February 18th. — Still frost and snow. I never remember so
severe and lasting a snowstorm in this part of the country. The

ELGIN. 115

wild ducks are nearly all driven away from Spynie, and only a
number of unhappy looking coots remain.

February 22nd. — Deep snow, but beginning to thaw.

Thrushes and blackbirds singing in the morning.

February 25th. — Still snow on the ground. Thaw part of
the day, but freezing towards evening. The wood -pigeons,
notwithstanding, keep in good order filling their crops with
turnip leaves, never having any of the roots in them, or even
of the rib of the leaf. The water-ouzels sing a great deal in
the burn.

Badgers seem to walk about to considerable distances in the
snow looking for food. Near the burn the tracks of otters drag-
ging themselves along the snow and rolling like a dog.

March llth. — Very fine. Two swans at the Loch of Spynie,
and a great many ducks of all kinds. Redshanks and black-
headed gulls have come in great numbers.

March 13th. — Fine. A great many teal, etc. in Spynie,
and two swans, apparently Bewick swans, judging from their
comparatively short necks and round bodies, which distinguish
them from the hooper.

March 1 6th. — Ground covered with snow. In some of the
fields were great numbers of large round lumps of snow from the
size of a man's head to much larger, having the appearance of
snowballs rolled by boys, but unlike anything naturally formed
that. I ever saw before. I could only attribute them to the
extreme dryness of the snow allowing itself to be drifted in this
manner. The ground had the appearance of being covered with
white boulders.

Eight swans at the Loch. Dr Manson sends word to me
that a fox has been killing some of his lambs, a very unusual
thing for a lowland fox to do.

March 19th. — Larks in great flocks.

March 20th. — Still frost and snow on the ground. The
wood -pigeons begin to coo a great deal in the woods. Dozens of
them cooing at once.

The roebuck, whose horns are now soft, lie out on the open

116 ELGItf.

hill a great deal, probably not liking to knock their horns against
the thick plantations.

March 24A — Showers of snow daily, and hard frost at night.
The snipes call a great deal, and the redshanks.

March 25th. — Hard frost in the morning, but warmer during
the day. Very cold again at night. The sparrows have been
building for some days. The tree-sparrows appear again. They
seem to go away in the winter.

March 29th. — Fine. Slight frost in the morning. The
tortoise-shell butterfly was flying about to-day. Snipes call in
all the marshes. Many of the coots have left the larger lochs
for their breeding-places, in small pools, marshes, etc. There
appear to be a great many woodcocks in the woods.

March 30th. — A white hare has been seen for two or three
days about the Castle of Spynie.

Kennie sent me a wild swan killed at Lochlee, weight 22^
lb., pure white.

March 31st. — Cold wind, E.

April 2nd. — Eain, but warm. We killed the fox which had
been destroying Dr Hanson's lambs.

Eennie brought me a roundish white egg with a smooth shell,
which he found in a rabbit's hole — length, 1^ of an inch ;
breadth, 1£ of an inch, apparently the egg of the tawny owl.

April 6th. — Peewits have commenced laying about Spynie.
Along the edges of every pool and ditch near Spynie I see the
remains of toads which have been killed and partly eaten. In
every instance only the hind legs are eaten. I suppose it is the
hooded crow.

While looking for a shot drake, " Leo " (my retriever) suddenly
fell down dead without a moment's illness of any kind, as he was
apparently perfectly well to the last instant.

Very few ducks in Spynie.

Dr Manson's greyhounds killed two white hares near his
house yesterday. A very unusual occurrence to see these
animals so far from their accustomed places.

Found that the dog was poisoned by strychnine.

ELGIN. 117

April *7th. — A pair of wood-pigeons looking for a resting-
place in the garden.

April 1 Oth. — As yet 1 have not seen a single spring bird of
passage, such as the wheatear, etc., which I generally see a week
before this. Every bird is late this year. On the 19th of April
in a former season I had found a wild duck's nest with thirteen
eggs, apparently within a week of hatching. This season I do
not think that they have eggs yet.

April 1 5th. — Soft west wind. Fished to Lossiemouth and
caught a few white trout.

April 16th. — On Monaghty Hill killed a mountain hare. I
found a wild duck's nest with eleven eggs. The old bird sitting.

A sparrow-hawk took a hen blackbird off her nest in the
garden to-day.

April 24:th. — Wild duck in the garden beginning to sit.

April 26th — I found the peregrine's nest at Hopeman in
exactly the same hole that she used last year. I saw three
sand-martins to-day.

May 5th. — Gulls have great numbers of eggs in Spynie.
Many of the nests have their full number and are sitting.

The sedge-warblers are in the reeds, etc. about the loch.

Young wild ducks hatched on the 3rd.

May 9th. — At Spynie saw swifts and heard the cuckoo,
both for the first time this year. I heard the sedge-warblers in
the reeds. The gulls (black-headed) are more numerous than
ever. Very few ducks appear to have nests. Three pairs
of shovellers (at least) flying about. Cold wind and sleet.

Sedge-warblers singing.

May 10th. — The herring-gulls have eggs.

May llth. — The common white butterfly flying about.

May llth. — Found a merlin's nest with three eggs. The
old birds appear to watch near it by turns to keep off the hooded
crows from their eggs till they begin to sit.

C. found the shoveller's nest (eleven eggs) at Spynie.

We went to the rocks near Covesea to look for peregrines'
nests. For some time the old birds did not show, and although

118 ELGIN.

1 fired off' near the place at a blnerock-pigepn, the female falcon
did not leave her nest; but while I was there a peregrine (a male),
which I at once knew to be a stranger, as he was a last year's
bird and still quite brown, came in, apparently from Ross-shire.
The male peregrine belonging to Covesea immediately appeared
and attacked him, and while they were fighting the female came
off her nest, and the two Covesea falcons drove the stranger
apparently back to Ross-shire, as we saw them going towards
that coast till lost in the distance. Presently the two Covesea
birds returned alone.

Snowie sent Mr Hancock the skin of a fresh killed female
golden eagle — width. 6 ft. 10 in. ; also two eggs of the golden
eagle.

May 18th. — I shot an old female badger early in the morning,
as she was returning to her hole. She looked as if with young,
but on dissecting her we found that she was completely gorged
with young rooks, probably picked up under a rookery.

In Quarry Wood we saw the siskins feeding their young
which had already flown.

May 19 th. — Rennie brought home another owl's egg from a
rabbit hole in the wood behind Woodside. The last which
he brought was on April 2nd.

May 3 1st. — We took the four young peregrines out of
the rock at Covesea. They were about the right size for taking.
The place was full of the remains of pigeons, peewits, ringed
dotterel, and redshanks.

On a paling near Gordonstown I found a number of chrysalis,
about an inch long, enclosed in a kind of transparent yellow
case, which were quite new to me.

June I3th. — A woman brought to me yesterday a young
live roe. She calls it three weeks old, but it does not appear
quite as old as she says. It drinks milk very readily.

June 15th. — I found a woodcock's nest with four eggs. The
old bird flew off and fluttered along the ground to take off
our attention. The nest was made of moss, small sticks, etc.,
and placed under some cut branches.

ELGIN.

119

August 9th. — In the woods near Loch Rannoch I saw a
great many siskins, crossbills, redpolls, etc.

Near Carr Bridge, on the Spey, I saw a squirrel in a
small clump of alder bushes.

At Rannoch Lodge there is a wild swan which was winged
two or three years ago, and now comes to the house to be fed, as
tame as any of the tame swans.

At Inverness I saw with a bird stuffer a specimen of the rose-
coloured starling, just killed.

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