ON THE MOOR 61 



whose dark Scots firs are hung here and there with 

 the tassel of the larch, and touched with the tender 

 green of the budding birch, are the only signs of a 

 spring, which, elsewhere, is already fast merging into 

 summer. 



Here and there on the moor are placed certain 

 uncannie, gallows-like erections, which, in the moon- 

 light, must give the furred, and feathered night- 

 wanderers quite a shock. These are meant at once 

 as perches, and traps for the long-eared owls. 

 What special crimes those interesting creatures 

 have committed, it were hard to say. They live 

 entirely on mice, shrews, and voles, and, from the 

 number of ejected pellets scattered about, they seem 

 to be extremely industrious, and successful hunters ; 

 not that the mice do much harm on the waste, 

 but still they are a prolific race, like the rabbits, 

 and most other rodents, and want keeping down. 



To know birds, one must not only be acquainted 

 with their feeding-grounds; still more important 

 is it that one should visit them thus in their 

 breeding haunts. They are gathered from mount, 

 and stream, and sea to the same moorland, where 

 they not only appear at their loveliest in their 

 bridal plumage, but, for the time, have laid 

 aside their native wildness. The fear of man is 



