EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 191 



the brain. Let us come to something practical, 

 which can be apprehended by all. The wood- 

 cock's travelling time ranges, I should say, 

 from the commencement to the end of the 

 autumnal equinox. Now autumn, a most 

 delightful time and climate in other places, 

 cannot be said to be so in the Hebrides, or 

 some parts of Ireland. From the middle of 

 September to the middle of November you are 

 sure of one month, if not more, of the most 

 unpleasant weather the imagination can con- 

 ceive, and the most opposed to migratory 

 operations. For the last five or six years 

 that particular season has been severe beyond 

 measure, and I attribute the scarcity of these 

 birds to their having been driven clean out 

 of their course by stress of weather. But, from 

 whatever cause their absence has proceeded, it 

 has been a severe loss, though I have no doubt 

 the time will come when they will return, just 

 as they have done in other places. For my 

 part, however, I would rather the grouse had 

 decreased than the woodcocks and the snipes ; 

 but then I presume they had not offended the 

 fairy, and three or four successive breeding 

 seasons brought them up wonderfully, till, 

 when I left Soval, the grouse-shooting was 

 really good. 



