CHAP. TWENTY-FOUR MIGRATION 



stop there long to-day with this great wind, but will all be 

 back before the clock chaps two." "Faith, I should like to see 

 any building that could contain a clock, and where we might 

 take shelter, "was my inward cogitation. The old man, how- 

 ever, having delivered this prophecy, set to work making a 

 small ambuscade by the edge of the loch which the birds 

 had just left, and pointed it out to me as my place of refuge 

 from one o'clock to the hour when the birds would arrive. 

 In the meantime we moved about in order to keep our- 

 selves warm, as a more wintry day never disgraced the 

 month of October. I n less than half an hour we heard the sign- 



o 



al cries of the swans,andsoon saw them in a lone undulatino- 

 line flyoverthelow sand-hillswhichdividedtheseafrom the 

 largest loch, where they all alighted. My commanderfor the 

 time being, then explained to me, that thewater in this loch 

 was everywhere too deep for the swans to reach the bottom 

 even with their long necks, in order to pull up the weeds on 

 which they fed, and that at their feeding-time, that is about 

 twoo'clock,theywould,withoutdoubt,flyover tothesmall- 

 er lochs, and probably to the same one from which we had 

 originally disturbed them. I was accordingly placed in my 

 ambuscade, leaving the keeper at somedistance, to help me 

 as opportunity offered — a cold comfortless time of it we(£^. 

 my retriever and myself) had. About two o'clock, however, 

 Iheard the swansrisefromtheupperloch,andin a few mom- 

 ents they all passed high over my head, and after taking a 

 short survey of our loch (luckily without seeing me), they 

 alighted at the end of it farthest from the place where I was 

 ensconced, and quite out of shot, and they seemed more in- 

 clined to move away from me than come towards me. It was 

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