CHAPTER V. 



RESTOKATION, 



As has already been observed, rieming, writing in 1828 

 {'Brit. Animals '), mentions that " recent attempts have been 

 made to recruit our forests from Norway, where the species 

 is still common." ^ It is probable that Fleming here alluded 

 to the attempt made at Mar Lodge; as the previous year 

 (1827), or the beginning of 1828, was the date of the first 

 importation of these birds to Mar Lodge from Sweden 

 {vide ' Edinr. New Phil. Journal,' July 1832). The account 

 given {op. cit.) is very full and interesting, and I make no 

 apology, therefore, for quoting it, as it will also serve to pre- 

 serve the continuity of our account of the species in Scotland. 

 Mr. Wilson writes as follows : — 



" I was wading down the Dee one fine afternoon, a little 

 below Mar Lodge, and with a lighter pannier than usual, 

 when I heard the cry of a bird to which I was unaccustomed, 

 and my bad success in that day's angling induced me the 

 more readily to diverge from the ' pure element of waters ' to 

 ascertain what this might be. I made my way through the 



^ In 1829 some of the members of the Highland Society of Scotland pro- 

 posed that the Society's attention should be directed towards the Restoration 

 of the species, and mention is made of attempts having been made, " but," 

 says the writer, " it is a difficult matter to alter the relations which naturally 

 subsist between the wild animals of a country and the state of its population 

 and surface." — ^ Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Soc. of Scot.,' 

 New Series, vol. i. p. 5 (1829). 



