SPOET OF BUTE. 117 



of stones capping a heathery mound. My youngest 

 son, a schoolboy, was my only companion, and of 

 course wished me to go home for a gun while he 

 watched the owl. Not having a specimen in my 

 collection, I was much tempted, but finally decid- 

 ed that, as the bird would most likely haunt the 

 place, we would always give the owl's cairn a trial 

 when grouse-shooting near it. All the early part 

 of last season I never passed the mound without 

 a close look-out; but the searches became more 

 careless each succeeding time, and at last were 

 omitted altogether. On the morning of the 4th of 

 September of the present year, thirteen months 

 after we first saw this rare bird, I was after grouse 

 with the same companion, close to " the hoolet's 

 cairn," as he called it, when of her own accord she 

 rose at some distance from us, and I shot her. It 

 was but seldom that my youngest boy was with 

 me on my shooting excursions ; and, considering 

 my many trials for the owl with one or other of 

 his brothers, that he should have been the only 

 one out the day she fell might have furnished good 

 material for a superstitious Highland legend. 

 The far more common long-eared owl I have 



