54 A HUNDEED YEARS 



drowned. The brocair was quite a young man, and had 

 not a grey hair in his head when he entered Uaimh 

 Bhraodaig, but by the time he reached the first house in 

 Talladale his head was as white as driven snow. This 

 story was believed to be quite true by everyone when 

 I was a boy. 



Birds '-nesting expeditions were also made to the 

 islands of Loch Maree after ospreys' eggs. There were 

 two eyries there, one of them in a real curiosity of a 

 place — ^namely, in Eilean Suthainn, one of the biggest 

 of the islands in Loch Maree. There is a small loch, 

 and in this loch (the depth of which is about double 

 that of the neighbouring Loch Maree), there is an island 

 on which stood one big Scots fir. In it was the ospreys' 

 nest, as large as a waggon-wheel, with three eggs. It 

 was lined with lumps of wool and bits of cow-dung, 

 and lying at the foot of the tree I found a dead 

 mallard, which appeared to have been freshly killed 

 by the ospreys ! There was another fir-tree where they 

 bred on a promontory nearly opposite Isle Maree, 

 from which I got two eggs. But, alas ! the birds have 

 been extinct in that region for at least sixty-five 

 years. 



There were expeditions to eagles' nests on the Creag 

 Cheann Dubh (the Black-headed Rock) in Beinn a Bhric 

 and on a rock opposite the Garbh choire of Bathais 

 Bheinn. There, wonderful to say, we were able to 

 walk into the nest. We were too late for the eggs, but 

 we found two good-sized eaglets, and there were five 

 whole grouse, quite freshly killed, lying near them, as 



