WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



hement manner against the wood for a minute, he swallows 

 it whole. I tried to get at him, coveting the bright blue fea- 

 thers on hisback, which are extremely useful in fly-dressing, 

 but before I was within shot, he darted away, crossed the 

 river, and sitting on a rail on the opposite side, seemed to 

 wait as if expecting me to wade after him; this, however, I 

 did not think it worth while doing, as the water was full of 

 floating ice, — so I left the kingfisher where he was, and ne- 

 ver saw him again. Their visits to this countryare very rare, 

 I only have seen one other, and he was sitting on the bow of 

 my boat watching the water below him for a passing trout 

 small enough to be swallowed. 



The kingfisher,the terns, and the solan geese are theonly 

 birds that fish in this way, hovering like a hawk in the air 

 and dropping into the water to catch any passing fish that 

 their sharp eyesight can detect.* The rapidity with which 

 a bird must move, to catch a fish in this manner, is one of 

 the most extraordinary things that I know. A tern, for in- 

 stance, is flying at about twenty yards high — suddenly he 

 sees some small fish (generally a sand-eel, one of the most 

 active little animals in the world), — down drops the bird, 

 and before the slippery little fish (that glances about in the 



*The author appears in this passage to have overlooked the osprey; but in a later 

 work, A Tour in Suthcrlandshire (1849), he gives a very faithful description of this 

 fine bird's mode of fishing. "X generally saw the osprey fishing about the lower pools of 

 the rivers, near their mouths; and a beautifiil sight it is. The long-winged bird hovers, 

 as a kestrel does over a mouse, at a considerable distance over the water, sometimes on 

 perfectly motionless wing, and sometimes wheeling slowly in circles, turning her head 

 and looking eagerly down at the water. She sees a trout when at a great height, and, sud- 

 denly closing her wings, drops like a shot bird into the water, often plunging completely 

 under, and at other times appearing scarcely to touch the water; but seldom failing to 

 riseagain with a good sized fish in her talons. . . . Sometimes, in the midst of her swoop, 

 the osprey suddenly stops herself in the most abrupt manner, probably because the fisli, 

 having changed its position, is no longer within her range. She then hovers again, sta- 



326 



