Goose-shooting ^87 



We had a long wait for this drive, bright sun, no wind, and tlie 

 surface of the loch like glass. Two Cormorants, one a very beautiful 

 adult bird, with white cheeks and white thighs, the other an 

 immature bird, scrambled out of the water on to a little rocky island, 

 witliin about two hundred \-ards of me, and started drying their wings 

 after their trout fishing. Presently, on the far-side of the loch a 

 Short-eared Owl came into view, and crossed the water to my side, 

 passing over the Cormorant rock in her course. Both these birds 

 slid off the rock back into the water, directly the Owl came near 

 them. After she had passed, they clambered up on to the rock 

 again and resumed dr\ing operations. It is quite certain that the}' 

 dropped off the rock into the water because they were frightened or 

 disturbed by the Owl. But what possible harm a Short-eared Owl 

 could do to a bird like a Cormorant, I cannot conceive. 



For the next twenty minutes, while waiting for the Geese, I 

 had ample opportunities of watching the Owl hunting the ground 

 all round me, and several times settling within a dozen yards or so. 

 I could not see that she caught anything while I had her under 

 observation, though the bog here seemed teaming with some kind 

 of vole. The sun was very bright all this time, but the Owl went 

 on diligently hunting in the full glare without the least inconvenience, 

 and was still quartering the ground, when 1 put an end to every- 

 thing by firing at the Geese. 



At I p.m., H — and I went on to the reef, which proved a 

 complete failure, owing, probably, to the fine weather. H — got a 

 Teal and lost a Mallard ; I shot a Cormorant, probably nineteen 

 or twenty months old, with an unusual amount of white on the 

 breast and muddy-green irides. We " flighted " in the evening 

 above Milton : none of us fired a shot ; one Teal and one Cormorant 

 was our bag for the day, with three guns and three gillies ! 



January 17th : Ormaclett and Bornish. — Very rough, with 

 whole gale from south east. This was a day of mishappenings. 

 Geese were very uneasy when we arrived, all moving south. This 

 movement was not due to any shifting by shepherds, but was entirely 

 " on their own," and must have been due to some cause which affected 

 all the Geese, Grey-lags and White-fronts as well as Barnacle. As 

 regards the Barnacle, this north-to-south migration lasted more or 

 less all day, sometimes in small, and sometimes in big flocks, low 

 down over the Bent hills in the teeth of the gale. 



We got a White-front and Barnacle in the morning, but it was 

 not until after lunch that our troubles began. We only then 

 recognized that the migration was continuous, and the line of 

 direction very uniform. We therefore, moved the guns out into 

 the Bent hills in the direction of the sea, but were stopped by a 

 fresh-water loch, and it was on the west, or seaward, side of this 

 loch that most of the Geese were passing. On the open plains, to 

 the north of us a native was rabbitting. He saw us go into our 

 " hides," and knew that we had not been able to cross the loch. 



