io6 St. Kildafrom Without. 



as the liveliest sea - boat in Her Majesty's 

 Navy. 



The hills and woods in the soft monotonous green of 

 early summer, looked smaller, but scarcely less beauti- 

 ful, than in the reds and golds of autumn, more familiar 

 to southerners. Black-headed Gulls flew peacefully 

 over the Lochs, and every now and then a Heron lifted 

 a long stiff neck from a reed bed without troubling 

 himself to rise. Once as we rounded a corner we 

 came suddenly upon two fine stags within a hundred 

 yards of the wire fence which shut off the line. They 

 lifted their heads for a moment in perfect unconcern, 

 and before we were out of sight were browsing again; 

 the pale coloured patch near the tail which, more or 

 less distinctly marked, is a characteristic of most of 

 the deer tribe, showing conspicuously as they stood 

 with backs towards us in the sunshine. 



In most of the more genuinely wild species, the 

 patch round the tail is more clearly marked than is 

 the red deer ; and, if the conclusions of Mr. Wallace 

 are correct, plays an important part in the preserva- 

 tion, at least of the more gregarious families, serving 

 as a mark of identification by others of the same 

 species, and as a signal of alarm when one of the 

 herd scents danger. 



The scud of the rabbit serves, we are told by 

 naturalists, in part at least, the same purpose. It is 

 inconspicuous so long as its owner is quietly feeding 

 in the dusk, but the moment he is frightened and 

 starts post-haste for his hole, it is waved as a white 

 danger flag for the benefit of the many who are 

 pretty sure to be feeding near. 



Altruism clumsy and un-English as the new- 

 fangled word sounds, it fills a gap in the language 

 is, at least throughout the lower orders of creation, 



