358 NETHER LOCHABER. 



each after his kind, the severest test to which such an accomplish- 

 ment could be put. If there be any truth in the old doctrine of 

 metempsychosis, Mackenzie, having shaken off the " mortal coil " 

 of his present form, is pretty sure to reappear as a rock-linnet, 

 redpole, or goldfinch. Like an honest man, who knows and ac- 

 knowledges the value and force of an Act of Parliament, he hadn't 

 011 this occasion much to show us, but what he had was in part at 

 least interesting, and captured in early spring. One curiosity was 

 a linnet with one wing pure white, which he would insist upon was 

 a different species from the ordinary linnet, because he had caught 

 so many with a sinister or dexter, one or other, wing white or 

 variegated. We fought a hard battle in trying to convince him 

 that it was a mere accidental bit of colouring, due probably to some 

 hurt received in its downy days, or at all events before its first 

 moult ; and made it no more a different species than an accidental 

 hurt, which causes a man to go lame, makes him anything else than 

 a specimen of homo sapiens all the same. Arguing, however, with 

 men of Mackenzie's stamp is rather uphill work. He listened, to 

 be sure, with a politeness and attention which seems to us to be 

 inseparable from the character of the true practical naturalist, and 

 seemed to give acquiescence in all we asserted, but we shouldn't 

 wonder a bit if he remained of his own opinion still. A rather rare 

 bird was a specimen, in excellent condition and feather, of the grey 

 crow, at one time quite a common bird along the shores of the 

 West Highlands, but owing to the incessant war waged against 

 them by shepherds, gamekeepers, and vermin-trappers, now become 

 so rare that we stopped our pony to have a good look at a pair that 

 we saw the other day near Strontian, at the head of Loch Sunart. 

 If you want a specimen of any British bird, just commission Mac- 

 kenzie to get it for you. He will only bring you a specimen that 

 is perfect of its kind, and if you only give him time he will succeed 

 in getting it, even if he walked a thousand miles in the pursuit. 



