124 A HUNDRED YEARS 



Another day on the same island we kept putting up 

 nearly as many short-eared owls as grouse and snipe. 

 Luckily, they rose singly, otherwise Fan would have 

 had fits, for, as it was, she was evidently horrified with 

 this new uncanny kind of game which had taken 

 possession of the heather on her pet preserve ! I shot 

 five. That very same day a ptarmigan rose in front of 

 me, which I also shot. It has always puzzled me why 

 it had descended to the very sea-level, seeing that the 

 big hills, where its home must have been, were some ten 

 miles away. I surmise that it must have been driven 

 down by an eagle or a falcon. 



Apropos of Isle Ewe, I remember taking the late 

 Dr. Warre, of Eton College, there one afternoon. I did 

 not have my gun, and he did all the shooting himself. 

 His bag was twenty grouse and twenty snipe. When 

 it was getting on towards evening, and we thought the 

 blue rock-pigeons would be back in their caves at the 

 outer end of the island, we rowed there in our boat, 

 and Dr. Warre added a good many pigeons to his bag. 

 As a finish up, and to vary the sport, we lifted a long 

 line, which we had set on our way to the island, and got 

 a fine haul of haddock and other fish. The doctor was 

 good enough to say it was the best afternoon's sport 

 he had ever enjoyed. 



Another day on the island we saw a flock of twenty 

 grouse. We soon perceived they were not natives, for 

 instead of being in the heather they sat in a row on the 

 tops of the stone dykes and crowed incessantly. They 

 all appeared to be cocks. So I went at them, and did 

 not stop until I had got nineteen of them, only one 



