162 Mr Wilson on the Introduction of 



I had last summer the pleasure of accompanying my scien- 

 tific friends, Professor Graham and Dr Greville, on a botanical 

 excursion to the Valley of Clova. The discovery of AstragaliLS 

 alpinus, till then unknown as a British plant, and of other 

 interesting rarities, rewarded their zeal, and has been elsewhere 

 recorded*. For myself, I chiefly plied the angler''s trade, and 

 had the satisfaction of providing my friends and their followers 

 (Professor Graham being accompanied by a detachment of his 

 class) occasionally with an agreeable addition to their dinner in 

 regions where there were very few loaves, and (but for my ex- 

 ertions) no fishes. We afterwards crossed the Grampians, skirt- 

 ing the " dark Loch-na-gar" and other fine mountain masses of 

 that neighbourhood, and, descending to the banks of the Dee, 

 took up our residence for a time at the Castletown of Braemar. 



I was wading down the Dee one fine afternoon, a little below 

 Mar Lodge, and with a lighter pannier than usual, when I 

 heard the cry of a bird to which I was unaccustomed, and my 

 bad success in that day's angling induced me the more readily 

 to diverge from the " pure element of waters,"" to ascertain what 

 this might be. I made my way through the overhanging wood 

 for a few hundred yards, and soon after reaching the road, 

 which runs parallel with the river on its right side, I observed a 

 wooden palisade, or enclosure, on the sloping bank above me. 

 On reaching it, I found it so closely boarded up, that I had for 

 a time some difficulty in descrying any inmates, but my eye soon 

 fell upon a magnificent bird, which at first, from its bold and 

 almost fierce expression of countenance, I took rather for some 

 great bird of prey than for a capercailzie. A few seconds, how- 

 ever, satisfied me, that it was, what I had never before seen, a 

 fine living example of that noble bird. I now sought the com- 

 pany of Mr Donald Mackenzie, Lord Fyfe's gamekeeper, the 

 occupant of the neighbouring cottage. He unlocked the door 

 of the fortress, and introduced me to a more familiar acquaint- 

 ance with its feathered inhabitants. These I found to consist 

 of two fine capercailzie cocks and one hen, and the latter, I was 

 dehghted to perceive, accompanied by a thriving family of young 

 birds, active and beautiful. I made various inquiries on the 

 spot ; but the fatigues of angling, and of entomologising com- 



• See this Journal, October 1831, p. 373. 



