110 FIELD NOTES FOR THE YEAR. 



He was shot in the chest, and was in the very act of giving 

 up the ghost when we came to him. In this country all 

 ways of killing foxes are considered fair, as limiting is out of 

 the question ; and if they are not kept down they destroy 

 every kind of game, lambs, and poultry. 



Feb. 8. I shot a female pochard to-day, one out of a large 

 flock : the rest, of course, all flew away. But presently a 

 male bird, probably the mate of the one I had killed, came 

 flying back from the lake to which the flock had gone, and 

 after passing once or twice low over the place where I had 

 shot her, he pitched on the water and swam about, searching 

 eagerly for his lost companion. He then went off to the 

 flock again ; but soon returned a second time to look for the 

 hen. Three times did he go and return in the same manner, 

 till at last he seemed to give it up as hopeless. 



I have observed the same attachment to their mates in 

 common wild ducks, teal, swans, &c., as well as in many 

 other birds. I remember an instance of a hen grouse being 

 caught by the leg in a common vermin trap which had been 

 set for ravens. It happened that the trap was not looked at 

 till late the following day, when we found that the cock 

 grouse had brought and laid close to his unfortunate mate a 

 quantity of young heather shoots : they were enough to have 

 nearly filled a hat, and the poor bird must have been em- 

 ployed many hours in collecting them. I cannot express 

 how grieved I was at the hen having been caught. 



Great numbers of fieldfares come down during the snowy 

 weather to the fields to fe^d on the turnips. - They dig holes 

 into the roots to an extent that astonished me. I shot two 

 or three. They are very fat ; but smell and taste so strongly 

 of turnips that they are quite uneatable. 



The widgeons leave the bay, which is nearly covered with 

 ice, and feed on the clover fields, digging under the snow 

 with their bills to get at the herbage. I never saw them do 

 so before in this county ; indeed it is very seldom that the 

 snow in Morayshire remains long enough on the ground, at 

 least in the district near the sea, to annoy the wild fowl to 

 any extent. 



While the snow is soft and newly fallen, the rabbits 

 seldom go fifty ya^ds from their seat of the day before, and 

 constantly return to the same bush. 



About the middle of this month I was shooting, with 

 Captain Cumrning, at the loch of Spynie, which I consider to 



