Chapter XVII: The Secret of the High Hills 215 (6)

We cautiously hoisted ourselves out of the burn on to the flat ground on the top of the bank, but even there could only see the stag’s horns and a very small part of his head.

Sandy whispered to me: “You will have to shoot off my back, sir; it is the only chance.” He carefully raised his back, and I put the rifle over it. I said: “I am too low now; I can’t see the stag’s body.”

“Ye’ll just have to put the coat on my back,” said Sandy, pushing towards me my rolled-up shooting-cape, which was fastened up with a strap. I hoisted the rolled-up cape on to Sandy’s back, and then prepared for a shot by putting the rifle on the top of the cape--an extraordinarily foolish proceeding. What I certainly ought to have done was to have stood straight up and fired at the stag from my shoulder. However, I took my shot in the position described, and something, I don’t know what exactly, caused me to pull off.

“His hind leg is broken,” said Sandy, as away went the stag and the rest of the deer. I instantly handed him the rifle, as I knew he was a first-class shot at running deer, and told him, if he could get the chance, to finish the stag off.

After a short interval I heard a shot, and then a second shot. Soon afterwards Sandy returned, and said, “You’ll never see him again, sir. I never touched him.”

It was almost dark, and we started on our homeward journey along the narrow foot-track through the forest. Sandy asked me to walk first so that I could go at my own pace. He followed me, and behind him came the gillie, there being only room to walk in single file. It is not easy to carry on a conversation with any one who is walking behind, nor did the fact that I felt very depressed at having left the wounded stag in suffering, perhaps to die a painful, lingering death, make it any easier. At first I made an occasional observation and then lapsed into silence. As I was walking along engrossed in my melancholy thoughts I noticed that the path was becoming more and more difficult to see, and indeed hardly visible in the growing darkness.

I said, “It’s getting awfully dark, and I can hardly see the path.” No answer. I turned round: neither of the men was to be seen. I stopped and shouted loudly, “Sandy!” Still no answer. This I repeated several times with the same result. I then began to think what I had better do. It was almost dark by this time. I was in the heart of one of the largest forests in the North of Scotland, miles from any human habitation, without a scrap of food, with an empty flask, and soaked to the skin up to my waist through wading and standing in the burn, which was in flood.

I decided to retrace my steps to the old ruins of the watcher’s cottage from which we had started. Taking great care not to lose the path, I began to do this, shouting now and then but hearing no reply. I tried to think out why the men should not have been following me on this path on which I was now returning, and which ran beside a broad burn which was in spate. I then remembered that the path which I had been following across the forest before I came to the burn was almost at right angles both to the burn and the path I was now on, and it occurred to me that possibly the path which I ought to have taken lay straight across the burn, and that the men might have crossed the burn and gone in that direction. I had, I knew, been walking, as I always do on these occasions, very fast, and this made me think it not unlikely, especially as it was so dark, that the men had assumed that I had crossed the burn in front of them. Being careful not to lose the narrow track I was on in the darkness, I discovered the point at which I had turned up the burn-side, and found that the other path leading up to the burn was a little wider, which encouraged me to hope that my supposed explanation might prove to be the true one. I then waded across the burn and found there was a path at right angles to it on the other side which looked more used than the track which I had just left. I therefore made up my mind to follow this path for a time, shouting every now and then in the hope that the men might hear me, and if I did not hear any reply I would then consider whether I would go on or retrace my steps to the old ruins and there spend the night--a cheerful prospect indeed.

After going some distance along the path I suddenly heard what I thought was the sound of shouting a long way off. I stopped and shouted more loudly than ever, and then heard the shouts coming nearer, and very soon after Sandy and the gillie appeared. It turned out that what I had supposed had happened, and that they had crossed the burn thinking that I was still in front of them.

I have never since then, on my return from stalking, walked in front of the stalker along a path which I do not know. This unpleasant incident made us later than ever, and I did not get back to the lodge until nearly 10 P.M.

The following season I was again stalking in the same forest, and on my first day was on the same beat where I had had the misfortune to wound the stag, as described above, and the same stalker was once more with me. I asked him whether he had heard anything of the wounded stag, and he replied, “Nothing whatever,” adding that although he was sure that the near hind leg was broken, he could not be sure in the darkness at what part exactly, but he thought it was low down.

We began by spying a corrie, which was about three miles from the place where I had wounded the stag in the previous season, and presently found five shootable stags which were together. After watching them for a time, Sandy said, “There are two much bigger than the others--one a dark beast; he’s a good stag, with only one horn.”

“All right!” I said. “Let’s shoot him; he’ll be interesting anyhow.”

We then stalked the stags and managed to get within about 120 yards of them. As soon as I got a good view of the beasts I noticed that the stag with one horn was limping slightly, and it flashed through my mind that he was almost certainly the stag which I had wounded in the previous season, particularly as he was the same colour and the horn seemed to me to be very similar to what I recollected of the horns of the wounded stag. Whilst these thoughts were rapidly passing through my mind, Sandy whispered, “Don’t take the stag with one horn, sir, but the yellow stag on the right which is a much better beast.”

By FINLAY MACKINNON.]

I replied by shooting the dark-coloured stag--this time in the right place.

“You’ve shot the wrong beast!” said Sandy. I said, “Oh, no I haven’t. You were with me last time I fired my rifle, and I then fired it at that very stag; let us have a look at him and see if I’m not right.”

On examining the stag we found that low down on his near hind leg the bone had evidently been fractured just above the fetlock, but had healed completely and set in the most wonderful way. This, of course, was what had caused the limp which I had noticed, and also the absence of the horn on the other side of the head. After examining the stag, Sandy quite agreed that there was no doubt it must be the same stag, and we both thought, although it was in very good condition, that it was at least a stone lighter than it had been in the previous season.

It is interesting to note that in the case of stags, as in that of human beings, the muscular movements are controlled by nerve centres which are situated on the opposite side of the brain.

XVII

THE SECRET OF THE HIGH HILLS

“I shall never forget that day, or the self-sacrifice and bravery of those men in that Brigade.” The speaker was a chaplain attached to one of the Highland Brigades which had been fighting in France. “We were told that a particular position had to be taken, and the work was allotted to certain of the Highland regiments. My work was to attend the dying after the attack was over and the position carried at the point of the bayonet. Amongst them was a piper who had shown extraordinary bravery in the assault, and who, though wounded three times, had persisted in carrying on and playing his pipes until he fell mortally wounded just as the assault, after very heavy fighting, was proving successful. He knew he was dying, and gave me messages for his wife and family. He was evidently a man of strong faith, and had no fear of death. Just before his valiant spirit passed away, he whispered, ‘Oh, if I could only see the high hills again before I die.’ His words deeply impressed me, and I have often thought of them since.”

This story of the dying piper, told to me in such simple and touching language, set me thinking and wondering. I could not help feeling that those last words of the gallant Highlander would strike a sympathetic chord in the hearts not only of those whose most cherished and sacred memories are bound up with the Highlands of Scotland, but of countless numbers of others who also love that country. In the days of peace I had often pondered over the irresistible fascination of this call from the North.

The Highlands of Scotland! Is there any one who has ever seen them, or who knows even slightly something of their romantic and enchanting history, who can fail to understand the passionate devotion of any one with Highland blood in his veins to that wonderful land?

“All the world over the sons of the heather and the mist, in however distant or alien lands they may be, feel always, as they steer their way through life, that there is a pole-star by which they set their compass; and that some day, perhaps, they or their children may steer the boat to a haven on some rocky shore, where the whaup calls shrilly on the moors above the loch, and the heather grows strong and tough on the hill-side, and the peat reek rises almost like the incense of an evening prayer against a grey, soft sky in the land of the north.”[35]

From the lone shieling on the misty island
Mountains divide us, and a waste of seas.
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is highland,
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides.[36]

How many a man at the end of July or the beginning of August, worn out with his work in Parliament, or the Law Courts, or elsewhere, turns his face and his thoughts to the North, and finds even in his anticipations and dreams of the days to come refreshment and solace! In most things in this life the anticipation is far greater than the reality, but not so in this case. In the hearts of how many men and women do the words of Aytoun find a responsive echo:

Give me but one hour of Scotland,

* * * * *

Southern gales are not for me;
Though the glens are white with winter,
Place me there and set me free.

Why is it that so many persons, young and old, and of such different character, habits, and classes, are fascinated and held by the spell of this country? What is the motive which is common to them all, if there is one? No doubt with some it is the longing for rest and change of scene, or the opportunity of meeting old friends or relatives in the far North, with others the desire for sport or the gratification of artistic tastes, and with others the ardent yearning to hear again the old familiar sounds, familiar since their early childhood--the sound of the rushing burn, the breaking of the sea on the rock-bound shore, the call of the sea-birds--and to see once more the high hills and silvery lochs and scent again the fragrant heather. But underlying all these, and perhaps more often than not quite unconsciously, there is one dominant governing motive which is surely spiritual rather than material--the desire for the environment which will uplift and ennoble, and with it bring a sense of being nearer to the pure--nearer to the things that are unseen and eternal--removed from all that is coarse and material.

By FINLAY MACKINNON.]

I well remember on one occasion discussing the question of the future world with a Highland keeper, and the emphatic way in which he said, “One thing is certain, and that is, that no one could be an atheist if he spent his life on the mountains.” I also remember that, curiously enough, the same observation was made by one Cambridge undergraduate to another, the speaker having been in the habit of spending days and nights camping out on the mountains in his father’s Highland property.

It is not inappropriate that in the Gaelic language the words used to signify “death” and “died” are not the same when used in reference to a human being as the words which are used in reference to an animal, the former words, _caochladh_ (substantive), _chaochail_ (verb), signifying a change or passing from one state of life into another, the latter _bas_ (substantive), _bhasaich_ (verb), extinction or annihilation.

On the sea coast, at the mouth of one of the sea lochs on the west coast of Ross-shire, I have often waited for the dawn, looking up the loch towards the high hills in the distance, and, whilst I waited, there would come into my mind those impressive words of the prophet Isaiah, “Watchman, what of the night?” The watchman said, “The morning cometh.” No one who has had this experience and seen the sun rise in its splendour over the high hills, flooding the surface of the sea with brilliant crimson light, will ever forget the scene, or the uplifting of spirit and sense of abiding peace which it imparted.

INDEX

_Acanthyllis caudacuta_, 40, 55

_Acanthyllis gigantea_, 55

Aeroplane, observations on flight of birds from, 50

Age of stags, 110-11

Air speed, 25

_A Joy for Ever_, 181

Alpine swift, 41-2, 49-53, 56-7

American golden plover, 33

_An Angler’s Paradise_, 191

Applecross, 141-2

_Apus_, 53

Armour, G. Denholm, 58

Attadale, 73

Australia, birds of fastest flight in, 54

_Avicultural Magazine_, 54 _n._

Aytoun, 218

Baker, E. Stuart, 55

Balfour-Browne, Vincent, 164

Bas, 217

Bhasaich, 217

Birds, speeds of various British, 35-6

Birds of Australia, twelve swiftest, 54

_Birds of Europe, History of_, 53 _n._

Birds of Fastest Flight in the British Isles, 23-70

_Birds of Great Britain_, 146

Birds of prey, 39-52, 57-70, 136-54

Blackcock, 35, 37, 45, 50, 58-9, 65, 138

Black game, killed by peregrines and eagles, 29, 66, 137-8, 149

Blaine, Captain G. S., 45, 148

Blanford, W. T., 56

Blue rock pigeons, 35, 44-5

Bond, William Walpole, 47

_Book of the Sea Trout_, 192

British Museum (Natural History), 41

Browne, Bishop G. F., 22 _n._

Buzzard, 49

Caberslach, 74

Calf, deer, attacked by eagle, 142

_Canadian Boat Song_, 217

Caochladh, 219

Capercailzie, probably fastest flying game bird, 45, 50

Carter, H. R. P., 57

Cats, killed by eagles, 138

_Chaetura_, 51, 53

_Chaetura caudacuta caudacuta_, 40, 53, 55

_Chaetura caudacuta cochinchinensis_, 55

_Chaetura nudipes_, 55-6, 57

Chaochail, 217

Chaytor, Arthur H., K.C., 93-5

Clough, Arthur Hugh, 21

Coignafearn, Forest of, 71

Common swift, 40-42, 46, 49, 50, 53

Corvidae, 36

Crealock, Lieut.-General, 204

Crow, killed by eagle, 68-9

Culture, trout, 189

Curlew, 36, 69

Currachd an righ, 179

_Cypselus apus_, 40

_Cypselus melba_, 40

Danger of wounded stags, 157

Deer, Homing Instincts of Wounded, 123-35

Deer calves, attacked by eagles, 139

Deer-hounds, 128

Deer-stalking, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6-11, 97-112, 123-35, 155-64, 170-81,
197-214

_Deer-stalking in the Highlands of Scotland_, 204

Depth of loch for good trout fishing, 196

Downward flight of the eagle, 57-70

Dresser, Henry E., 53, 53 _n._ 55

_Dry-Fly Man’s Handbook_, 194

Duck, wild, 28-9, 36, 70, 136

Duck-shooting, 165

Duel between eagle and peregrine, 61-2

Eagle, 36-7, 49, 57-9, 62-5, 67, 69, 70, 107, 136-8, 142, 153
attack on a full-grown stag, 139
downward flight of, 57-60
food of, 38, 136-7
weight of, 60

Eggs, number of trout, 195

Eleonora’s falcons, 51

_Falco candicans_, 38

_Falco gyrfalco_, 38

_Falco islandus_, 38

Falconer, 34, 36, 152

Falcons, 28, 30, 36, 43, 46, 51-2, 57-60, 62, 68, 70, 143-5, 149,
151, 153
Eleonora’s, 51
Greenland, 38-9
Iceland, 38-9
Northern, 38-9, 57

Fastest bird in British Isles, 57, 70

Fealar, 74, 170

_Field Studies of some Rarer British Birds_, 47

Fighting, stags killed in, 73

Finlayson, John, stalker, Killilan, 66

Finlayson, stalker, Applecross, 142

Fisher, Major C. H., 149

Fishing, fly-, 13-22, 92-5, 113-22
minnow-, 93
salmon, 12-22, 85

Flight in the British Isles, Birds of Fastest, 23-70
of the eagle, downward, 57
horizontal, 37

Forest, Stormy Week in the, 97-112

Fox cubs, killed by eagles, 138
dens, 139

Fresh-water shrimp, 184

Frigate bird, 54

_Fuligula ferina_, 30

Gaelic sayings and words, 111, 179, 219

Gannet, downward flight of, 63

Geese, speed of, 36

Glen Carron Forest, 8

Glen Shieldaig Forest, 140

Golden eagle (_see_ Eagle) weight of the, 60
plover, 32-3, 35-6, 43, 45-6, 57, 69
American, 33

Goose, solan, 63

Goshawks, 143

Gould, John, F.R.S., 54, 146

Green Plover, 35

Greenland Falcon, 38-9

Greyhen, 149

Ground speed, 25

Grouse, 29, 59, 68, 107, 136-7, 144-146, 149-51, 153

Gulls, 43

Gyrfalcon, weight of the, 60

Gyrfalcons, 38-40, 57, 60, 63, 66

Halford, F. M., 191 _n._, 194

Hares, killed by eagles, 136, 138

Harrier, 49

Hartley, Gilfrid W., 197

Hawk, sparrow-, 49, 143, 147-8

Hawks, 30, 48, 136, 142-53

Hereford, 88

Highlands of Scotland, fascination of, 216

Hobby, 45-6, 49

Homing Instincts of Wounded Deer, 123-35

Hounds, deer-, 128

Hummel, 74

Hurrell, H. G., 39

Hutton, J. Arthur, 94-5

Iceland falcon, 38-9

Jackdaw, 35

Jura, 111

Kestrel, 35, 49, 142

Killilan, 66

King’s night-cap, 179

Kite, 49

Lambs, killed by eagles, 138

_Lame Dog’s Diary_, 217

Landrail, speed of, 35

Last Stalk of the Season, 170-81

_Letters to a Salmon Fisher’s Sons_, 93

_Life History and Habits of Salmon, etc._, 190, 193

Loch Carron, 10
Leven, 185
trout, 191
Luichart, 204
problem, 182

Lodges in the Highlands, highest shooting, 171

Lost in the Forest, 209

Macdougall, stalker, Fealar, 171

McIver, Donald, 66

Mackay, John, stalker, North Jura, 111

Mackenzie, Alick, stalker, Applecross, 141

Maclennan, watcher, Coignafearn, 72

Macnaughtan, S., 217

Mallard, 30-31, 33-5, 70

Malloch, P. D., 190, 191 _n._, 192-3, 196

Mar Forest, 74

Marryat, 194

Matheson, Donald, stalker, Glen Shieldaig, 140

Meinertzhagen, D.S.O., Colonel R., 27, 31, 33, 35, 42, 50, 52

Merlin, 35, 45-6, 49, 147

Mesopotamia, swifts in, 50

Minnow-fishing for salmon, 93

Mosul, swifts in, 50

Muckle Hart of Ben More, 164

Murray, Charles J., Esq., of Loch Carron, 10, 140

Natural History Museum at South Kensington, 41

_Natural History of Sport in Scotland with Rod and Gun_ (Speedy),
150, 191, 205

Nature’s cures of wounded deer, 196-914

Needle-tailed swift, 40, 52-3

Nerve Centres in deer, 214

Northern falcons, 38-9, 57

Orrin, 149

Otter, salmon killed by, 20, 86

Partridges, 27, 99, 35, 147, 149

Passeres, smaller, 36

Patt Forest, 66

Peregrine, horizontal flight of, 26-40, 42, 45-6, 49, 52, 137
downward flight of, 57-63, 68-70
food of, 38
how it strikes its prey, 142-54
weight of, 60

Perils, of stalkers, 81

_Peschiera_, 21

Petrels, 43

Pheasants, 29, 35, 58-9, 144-5

Pigeons, 37, 44-5
blue rock, 44-5
rock-, 51
speed of, 36
wood, 35, 152

Plover, 33
American golden, 33
golden, 32-3, 35-6, 43, 45-6, 57, 69
green, 35

“Poca buidhè,” 180

Pochard, 30-31, 45

Portal, D.S.O., Captain C. F. A., 26, 34, 52, 146, 151

Prey, birds of (_see_ Birds of prey)

Ptarmigan, 3, 65, 107, 136

Rabbits, 136

Radclyffe, Major C. R. E., 28-30, 34, 39, 44, 65, 143, 151

Red sedge, 186

_Reminiscences of a Falconer_, 149

Robinson, W. H., 69

Rock-pigeon, 51

Rook, 35, 154

Royal stag, 80, 174, 179, 204

Ruskin, 181

St. John, Charles, 32, 164

Salmon fishing, 12-22, 85-96, 113-122

Salmon Loch in Sutherland, 113-22

Sanctuary, 123

Saunders, Howard, 53 _n._

Secret of the High Hills, 215-20

Sedge, cinnamon, 186
red, 186

Seebohm, 54

Sheringham, H. T., 96

Shooting, duck-, 165

Shrimp, fresh-water, 184

Shrimp-weed, 184

Snipe, 28-9, 65

Solan goose, 63

Sovenson, E. S., 54

Sparrow-hawks, 49, 143, 147-8

Speed, air, 25
ground, 25
of Australian birds, 54

Speeds of British birds, table of, 35-6
fastest, 57, 70

Speedy, Tom, 151-3

Speedy’s _Natural History of Sport in Scotland with Rod and Gun_,
205

Spine-tailed swift, 40-42, 51-3, 55-57, 70

Spring-tide, 165

Stags, age of, 110-11
attacking stalkers, wounded, 155
danger of wounded 157
eagles attack full-grown, 139
stalking (_see_ Deer-stalking)

Stalkers, 64, 71
wounded stags attacking, 155

Stalking, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6-11, 71-84, 97-112, 123-35, 155-64, 170-81,
197-214
mistakes in, 6-10

_Stalks Abroad_, 156

Starling, 35-6

Stormy Week in the Forest, 97-112

Strathconan, 66-7

Stuart, Hamish, 192

Surgeon of the Deer Forest, 196-214

Sutherland, A Salmon Loch in, 113

Swallows, 43

Swan, 152

Swift, 36, 40, 42-8, 50-51
Alpine, 41-2, 49-53, 56-7
common, 40-42, 46, 49-50, 53
needle-tailed _or_ spine-tailed, 40-42, 51-3, 55, 70

Switch-horn, 73-4

Tame pigeons, 36

Teal, 28, 33-6, 46, 57

Tennyson, 21 _n._

Three, luck in number, 92

Tickell, 55

Tiercel, 42, 46

Tracker, 128

Trout eggs, number of, 195
loch, how to improve, 182-96

Velocity of falling birds, 61

Waders, speed of, 36

Wallace, Frank, 156

Weight, influence of in flight, 30, 60
of the eagle, 60
of the gyrfalcon, 60
of the peregrine, 60

Wild duck, 28-9, 36-70

_Wild Sport with Gun, Rifle, and Salmon Rod_, 197

_Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands_, 37, 164

Willoughby, Colonel the Hon. Claude, 141

Wings, 54, 58, 142, 145, 150

Witherby, H. F., 53 _n._

Wood pigeon, 35, 152

Woodcock, 28-30

Wounded Deer, Homing Instincts of, 123-35
stags, attacking stalkers, 155-64
danger of, 81, 157

Wye, river, 12, 85

_Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.

FOOTNOTES.

[1] “The Death of the Wye,” _Images and Meditations, a Book of Poems_, by Mary Duclaux. T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., London.

[2] It is singular that this poem was written and published in 1849, and that Tennyson’s _In Memoriam_, which contained the famous lines:

“’T is better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all,”

was written in 1834 but not published until 1850, and then anonymously. This is surely very remarkable, for it is impossible to believe that a man of the high and noble character of Clough would have consciously plagiarised any other poet.

[3] After the publication of these verses in the above article, as it originally appeared in the issue of _Country Life_ for August 6, 1921, their authorship was discovered through the kindness of some of the readers of that journal and the enterprise of its editor. In a letter in _Country Life_ for August 27, 1921, Bishop G. F. Browne, late Lord Bishop of Bristol, thus describes their origin. “The first three stanzas were composed at Lowick Rectory, Northants, by the rector, J. S. Watson, his daughter Betty, and Dean Ingram of Peterborough. The authors felt that there ought to be a concluding stanza, ambiguously stating a final result. I told the story to Father Waggett on our way from Bournemouth to Clouds, and he suggested ‘booked it’ as the point of a last stanza. On that hint I wrote the stanza. In my book I remark that its tendency would be unjust to any real fisherman’s imaginative powers.”

[4] December 11, 18, 25, 1921.

[5] January 28, February 4, 11, 18, 1922.

[6] _Field_, February 18, 1922, p. 233.

[7] “Velocity of Flight among Birds,” by Colonel R. Meinertzhagen, D.S.O., in the _Ibis_ for April 1921, pp. 237-238.

[8] _Field_, February 18, 1922, p. 234.

[9] _Wild Sports of the Highlands_, chap. x. p. 135.

[10] _Field_, February 18, 1922, pp. 233-234.

[11] _Ibis_, April 1921, p. 234.

[12] _Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands_, by Charles St. John, ch. x. p. 131.

[13] See also the letter of Mr. H. G. Hurrell in the _Field_ for March 8, 1923.

[14] This is a very considerable warning--H. F.

[15] Pp. 258-259 (Witherby & Co., London, 1914).

[16] Pp. 35, 36.

[17] _Manual of British Birds_, by Howard Saunders, 2nd ed. (Gurney & Jackson, London), pp. 264, 266.

[18] _History of the Birds of Europe_, by Henry E. Dresser, F.L.S., F.Z.S. (1871-1881), vol. iv. p. 617.

[19] _A Practical Handbook of British Birds_, edited by H. F. Witherby, vol. ii. pp. 7, 9. Witherby & Co., London, 1920.

[20] _Handbook to the Birds of Australia_, by John Gould, F.R.S. (1865), vol. i. p. 104. London.

[21] Vol. ii. p. 305, Porter, 6 Tenterden Street, W.; Dulau & Co., Soho Square, W., 1884.

[22] _Avicultural Magazine_, Third Series, vol. x. No. 4, February 1919, pp. 73-74.

[23] Vol. iv. p. 616.

[24] _British Birds Magazine_, vol. xvi. No. 1 (June 1, 1922), p. 31.

[25] _The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma Birds_, vol. iii. p. 173. Published under the authority of the Secretary of State for India in Council. Taylor & Francis, London, 1895.

[26] _Ibid._ p. 174.

[27] March 15, 1923.

[28] _Ornithological Dictionary of Birds_, by Col. G. Montagu: 2nd edition by James Rennie, London, 1831.

[29] _Rough Shooting_, by Richard Clapham, ch. vii. pp. 125-126. Heath Cranton, Ltd., London, 1922.

[30] In _One Hundred Years in the Highlands_, p. 132 (Edward Arnold, London, 1921), Mr. Osgood Mackenzie quotes an extract from a diary of his uncle, Dr. John Mackenzie of Eileanach, in which an incident of this kind is described as having occurred in Kinlochewe Forest.

[31] Adam & Charles Black, London, 1910.

[32] See, for instance, the opinions of Mr. F. M. Halford in _The Dry-Fly Man’s Handbook_, p. 395 (George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., London); Mr. P. D. Malloch at p. 179 in the work previously cited; Mr. J. J. Armistead in _An Angler’s Paradise, and how to obtain it_; and Mr. Tom Speedy in _The Natural History of Sport in Scotland with Rod and Gun_ (William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1920).

[33] Martin Secker, London, 1917.

[34] _The Dry-Fly Man’s Handbook_, p. 319 (George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., London).

[35] _A Lame Dog’s Diary_, by S. Macnaughtan, pp. 239, 240 (John Murray, London, 1915).

[36] “Canadian Boat Song,” _St. Andrew’s Treasury of Scottish Verse_, by Mrs. Alexander Lawson and Alexander Lawson, pp. 133, 134 (A. & C. Black, Ltd., London, 1920).

* * * * *

Transcriber’s note:

Inconsistent use of hyphens, such as burn-side/burnside and gyr-falcon/gyrfalcon, has been retained.

Page viii: M^cIver (superscript c) changed to McIver to match other instances in the book.

Index: “Cats, killed by eagles, 38” changed to “Cats, killed by eagles, 138”.