144 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXIX. 



the knavish cuckoo prefers to lay her eggs in, is 

 that of the titlark ; and in Scowrie and Assynt 

 those birds abound. 



Another bird, whose cry is invariably associated 

 by me with one kind of locality, is the swift. I 

 never hear the loud scream of this bird without 

 having some well-remembered steeple or other 

 lofty building brought vividly before my mind's 

 eye : thus, also, the martin and swallow recall 

 the recollection of some favourite stream, whose 

 waters abound in trout, and whose banks swarm 

 with the May-fly and gray drake. 



The crow of the grouse is as inseparable in my 

 mind from the mountains of Scotland, as the song 

 of the ring-ousel is from its birch-covered glens, 

 or the spring call of the peewit from the marshy 

 meadows. 



There is, I think, great pleasure in thus recol- 

 lecting by the sounds and notes of living animals 

 scenes which the eye has dwelt upon with delight, 

 and so constant is every bird to its own locality, 

 that the associations thus called forth are invariably 

 correct. 



In preserving game, quiet and food are the two 

 things to be attended to. No animals will remain 

 in places where they are frequently disturbed ; 

 vicinity to favourable feeding-ground is also a sine 



