86 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



After some little time he succeeded in locating 

 one, and I went out by train to his place. We had 

 to walk about a mile to the nest, which was pretty- 

 high up in a tree, situated in a wood principally of 

 small birch trees. I shot the hen, and then stayed 

 for the cock to come, but although we heard him 

 calling all round in the wood, and waited for him 

 till the evening, he never would show himself so as 

 to give any chance of a shot. 



I then saw what a mistake I had made in 

 shooting the hen first. However, next morning I 

 went out from Oban again, and the keeper and I 

 kept in hiding near the tree where the nest was. 

 Although we could hear the male bird in every 

 direction, still never a chance would he give us ; so 

 after waiting several hours in the wet — for it was 

 raining all the time — I decided to give that nest up 

 and find another. 



A week or two after this event, I was staying in 

 the Island of Mull, when I received intimation from 

 the keeper that he had found another nest, so 

 taking steamer back to Oban, it was not long before 

 I arranged to try my luck once more. 



The nest was situated in a wood with somewhat 

 similar surroundings to the first, and in a fairly high 

 tree. Profiting by my experience of the mistake 

 made in shooting the female before the male, the 

 keeper and I placed ourselves amongst some 

 boulders in a fairly concealed position, at the same 

 time within gunshot of where the hen bird was 

 sitting. Now the usual custom with this species 



