THE ENDED TRUCE 227 



he does not in the south, he accounts for the death of 

 not a few mountain hares, disguised for defence as he is 

 disguised for attack. But the eagle is more destructive, 

 and perhaps harder to avoid, even than the stoat ; and 

 native himself, he chooses in preference the native bird 

 for prey. 



To a naturalist, at any rate, there is no change of air so 

 stimulating as a change of flora and fauna ; and did the 

 grouse flourish in Surrey, as Lord Onslow and others hoped 



they would, the 12th would not be the 12th in Surrey as it is 

 in Skye. One desires to be 'up to the hips in heather,' as 

 Christopher North says ; and to get the taste of the season 

 there is no better recipe than his. 



' But let us off to the moor ! . . . Towards what airt 

 shall we turn our faces ? Over yonder cliffs shall we ascend, 

 and descend into Glen Creran, where the stony regions that 

 the ptarmigan love melt away into miles of the grousey 

 heather, which, ere we near the salmon-haunted Loch so 

 beautiful, loses itself in woods that mellow all the heights 

 of Glen Ure and Fasnacloigh with sylvan shades, wherein the 



