Wanderings of a Naturalist 



ing had been retarded by the late snows, and it would be a 

 fortnight yet before the hens were brooding. As I sat in a 

 sheltered part of the hillside I noticed a couple behaving 

 in a curious manner. Through the glass they were seen 

 to be two cocks, and the birds were evidently rivals for 

 the affections of a hen somewhere near. In great excite- 

 ment they pursued each other backwards and forwards 

 across the hill face, now flying low over some great 

 snowfield, now racing at express speed above some rocky 

 scree. Anon they would alight together in the snow, pause 

 a moment, perhaps for breath, then run rapidly across the 

 snow parallel to each other, with wings outspread. Then 

 one of them would once again take hurried flight and the 

 other would pursue him. Once the birds passed not more 

 than six feet from where I sat, and so intent were they on 

 their own affairs that they paid not the slightest attention 

 to me. From time to time one of them disappeared, and 

 I imagined that the dispute had been settled, but a few 

 minutes later the pursuit was as furious as ever. 



Near Lochan Buidhe a couple of hinds were spied cross- 

 ing a field of snow. From the direction of their tracks they 

 seemed to have come from the Glenmore side, attracted to 

 the tops, probably, by the sudden heat, for here there was as 

 yet no grazing of any kind. At Lochan Buidhe the water- 

 shed is very narrow. Within a hundred yards of the birth- 

 place of the Feith Bhuidhe burn, the March burn (which 

 appears in the Lairig Pass as the Pools of Dee) rushes down 

 the rocky face of Ben MacDhui, so that waters which flow 

 respectively into Spey and Dee almost mingle at this point. 

 Looking down into the Lairig beneath me, I could see that 

 even here winter still lingered. Two of the Pools of Dee 

 were still buried beneath snow and ice, and big snowfields 

 covered the steep face of Sron na Lairige. 



But the most remarkable scene for the season of the year 

 lay towards Cairn Toul and the Garbh Choire. The latter 

 was quite filled with snow, and round the top of the rocks 



54 



