INTRODUCTION 9 



Even to those of us who have been nurtured 

 under present conditions, for, after all, our natural 

 education only begins with our own lifetime, the 

 apparition of a reindeer on the hills, or a water-dog 

 in the streams might appear a foreign element; 

 and make Scotland look scarcely like herself. But 

 all ought to be agreed as to the undesirableness of 

 driving away any more, or persecuting those that 

 are left. 



Meantime, my scheme is much wider; and will 

 embrace creatures outside the disturbed areas, 

 whose lives are passed under ordinary conditions, 

 and exposed only to natural enemies. 



I am touched with a passion for wild nature, 

 the wilder the better; and confess to a special 

 interest in whatever lives beyond enclosures, 

 and has not been spoiled by that form of taming 

 known as preserving. What I have to say has, 

 at least, so much merit as belongs to personal 

 observations, made, not once, but many times. 

 It has been my delight to visit my friends in 

 their homes, and to go back again and again to 

 see them. 



When I move abroad, I carry no stock of pre- 

 possessions. I have been careful to put in practice 

 a lesson I first learned with regard to my own 



