io WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



kind, to forget all I had heard, so that I might 

 look and judge for myself. 



If, in anything, I have seen wrongly ; and anyone 

 who has learned in the same way, will put me 

 right ; so far from being annoyed, I shall be glad 

 to learn from wiser men. Often, in the July sun, 

 have I sat down on the stone dyke, shaded by a 

 mountain ash, to listen to a stonebreaker ; and I 

 am not likely to complain of information from 

 other quarters. 



It is somewhat difficult to deal with a mass of 

 material, and a wide area of country ; but my plan 

 is simple. I have chosen out representative ex- 

 periences ; dropped down, here and there, on likely 

 places. And, perhaps, the following chapters will 

 give a fairly complete account of the forms of life 

 in the wilds of Scotland ; and in the waters which 

 surge twice a day round her coasts. 



