272 HIGHLAND SPORT 



angling in Scotland is difficult to get, for the angler's choice is 

 limited to the following rivers : Beauly, Brora, Carron, Conon, 

 Dee, Garry of Loch Oich, Halladale, Lyon, Naver, Oykel, 

 Lower Shin, Spey, Tay, Tummel, Thurso, and Tweed, al- 

 though on many of these rivers spring sport will never be of 

 much account until there is an alteration for the better in the 

 laws that now govern the close times and the nets. 



Such rivers as the Deveron, Ugie, Ythan, Findhorn, Nairn, 

 North and South Esk are practically worthless until the nets 

 are taken off. On the West Coast of Scotland, strange to say, 

 though there are fully a score of good big rivers, with some 

 hundred more of a smaller size, there is not a single early one 

 in the lot, although at any time after the middle of June 

 excellent sport may be had in most of them, especially in the 

 Laxford, Inver, Kirkaig, Shiel, Lochy, Spean, Awe, and Orchy. 



When on a fishing trip, it is always as well to parade your 

 gillie, to see that he really has with him all requisites for the 

 day, and attention to such a little detail will often save loss of 

 time and temper. 



Plovers' eggs can be found more easily by watching the 

 birds using a field than by walking it up and down many times 

 If the seeker hide himself for such a period as to make the 

 peewits think he has departed, which does not require very 

 long, and then gradually show himself again, the hens with 

 nests will be seen to rise silently and steal off at great speed to 

 a distance ere they utter their pretty cry. Those birds that rise 

 to circle about over the place they started from, the while 

 shrieking loudly and incessantly, are cocks, or hens without 

 nests. 



As soon as the egg hunter has marked the places from 

 which the nesting hens have risen, he can walk directly to 

 them, and if the marking has been well done, he will go 

 straight to each nest. At first it will be difficult to mark 

 more than one or two hens at a time, but practice will soon 

 render the matter easier, and I have seen a man used to this 



