THE GREENSHANK 195 



their nest near, and gave the alarm in no uncertain manner 

 when danger approached, the Greenshank always sat 

 lightly ; in fact, it was only on one occasion that I saw 

 her leave the nest at all. During her flight, too, she 

 remained silent, and it was after we had been at the nest 

 some time that she put in an appearance, flying restlessly 

 round once till she lighted on the very top of a Scots pine, 

 and uttered her wild and striking whistle before winging 

 her way right out of sight. Presuming that the hen did the 

 main share of incubation — she was at no time sufficiently 

 near to be identified — the cock never put in an appearance. 

 The nest in this case was placed at the foot of a decaying 

 tree stump, and there was a complete absence of cover for 

 the brooding bird. For many miles around there ex- 

 tended great pine forests ; indeed, the woods approached 

 to within less than 100 yards of the nest. In the back- 

 ground the whole range of the Cairngorm Hills lay clear 

 in the strong June sunlight. On Cairngorm itself broad 

 fields of snow still lingered. Coire an t-sneachdach still 

 held great fields of white, though I have often wondered 

 why this title of Snowy Corrie has not been given to Coire 

 Lochan, farther to the west of the hill, for here the snow- 

 beds linger as often as not throughout the year. 



In Coire Caise the burn draining the corrie still flowed 

 deep beneath its snowy covering, but from Creag na 

 Leachann the hand of winter had departed for a season. 

 From the haunt of the Greenshank one looked right 

 through the Larig Ghruamach, that deep pass, full of 

 gloom and grandeur, which stretches through the very 

 heart of the great hill range. The pass is high — at its 

 summit the sea lies near 3000 feet below it — and its dark 

 sides were still flecked with snow. In the far distance, 

 too, one could see the birth-place of the Dee, and where 

 the river, emerging from its tunnel of snow, dropped in 

 white cascades into the glen below. 



