134 NATUKAL HISTOKY AND 



Once or twice I walked down to the bay armed 

 and ready, but the enemy was either invisible, or 

 plying his piratical vocation among the salmon 

 far beyond reach of my bullets. This year he has 

 not put in an appearance at all ; and a few years 

 since he also absented himself for a whole salmon 

 season, but returned on the following one at the 

 usual time. The many years that the Ettrick seal 

 has summered in its bay has gained for it some 

 local notoriety, while its curious and methodical 

 habits have so far interested me as to stop all 

 desire to put an end to its wild and wayward 

 life. 



Not being an entomologist, my observation of 

 the insects of Bute has been very circumscribed. 

 I have seen none of the southern butterflies or 

 moths which the mild climate of this island had 

 led me to expect. Neither cockchafers nor stag- 

 beetles enliven the twilight, and not one specimen 

 of the larger sphynxes have we captured, or even 

 seen. Had there been any, no doubt some of 

 these gorgeously-pencilled beauties would have 

 found their way into our drawing-room, along 

 with the sober-coloured small moths which beset. 



