CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 237 



ready for the arrival of the male Hen Harrier — for 

 I was sure he was bound to come — I awaited events. 

 It was not very long before he made his appear- 

 ance, but not sufficiently near to make my shot 

 a certainty ; and this I was determined to wait 

 for, as my experience has always been that the first 

 chance is always the one to be relied on, and that 

 failure then often results in getting no more chances ; 

 at last the Hawk appeared to be going to give me 

 that opportunity for which I had been hoping ; 

 when suddenly — apparently for no reason whatever, 

 because he hadn't seen me — he swerved off. I 

 thought to myself, " whatever made him do that ? " 

 The cause, however, was soon explained when I 

 heard behind me a voice which said " Good morn- 

 ing. Sir " ; I looked up and saw the under-keeper, 

 the very man who had been so inquisitive about my 

 movements, and was always questioning my ghillie. 

 His name was Ross, so I said in reply to his saluta- 

 tion, " Hulloa, is that you Ross ? Have a drop of 

 whiskey?" "No thankee, sir," he replied. "What, 

 not like whiskey ? Most of the Scotch people like 

 it," continued I, or something to that effect. 



The fact was, although he didn't know it, he had 

 unfortunately got hold of a " mare's nest," for it 

 was his master who had given me authority to do 

 what I was doing ; so I played with him a bit to 

 begin with, and then, just when I knew he was 

 going to ask me what I was doing there, I saved 

 him the trouble of putting the question by rounding 

 on him and saying, "Perhaps I may as well tell you 



