THE SNOW BUNTING 255 



captured a hen Ptarmigan as she brooded on her nest. 

 The stoat is sometimes present, but he usually confines 

 his attentions to the lower end of the glen. The eagle, 

 which sails so proudly over the hill- top, has no eye for the 

 Snow Bunting, and the Peregrine rarely visits the glen. 



I have wondered, sometimes, whether the Snow Bird 

 noticed, as he sang his song with only a few seconds of 

 interval through the long summer day, the grand panorama 

 of mountain and glen which stretched away westward 

 from his hillside, whether his eye noted the great snow- 

 fields on the hills bordering the distant west coast, and 

 whether he marked the thunderstorm gathering above 

 the Spey valley. Did his eye see, on these fine sunny 

 days, the stags moving up out of the big glen beneath 

 and making their way up his corrie, cropping the green 

 grass which carpeted the ground near the wells, and during 

 the heat of the day seeking the dwindling snow-beds, to 

 lie lazily on their cool surface till the sun was dipping 

 towards the hills in the far nor'-west ? Maybe he saw it 

 all, I think ; and yet, this being his home, he took the 

 fine sights as a matter of course, for I am sure that the 

 Snow Bunting is a philosophical bird. 



To the Highlanders the Snow Bunting was held as a 

 sacred thing, along with the Robin, the Wren, and the 

 Crossbill. A curious tradition is related of this bird. A 

 hillman went to a certain holy well to draw water. 

 He found a fire burning there with a brazen pot hanging 

 over it. The fire was made of dried horse-dung, and the 

 pot was filled with Snow Buntings. Around the fire were 

 seated a number of tacharans — the spirits of unbaptized 

 children — clothed with white. The Highlander requested 

 that the pot should be given him. His request was re- 

 fused. It was repeated thrice, with certain forms, and 

 then the man was allowed to take it, but with a curse 

 attached to it that " Nach seasadh an coinneamh Shraspe 



