Sgoran Dubh : An Autumn Snowfall 



number of hinds with two or three stags came into view 

 beneath me, crossing the rocky hill face about Loch an-t- 

 Seilich. At a height of about 2,500 feet I came across a well- 

 grown mountain ash in a rocky gorge, where there was good 

 shelter from every wind except the east. Beside this hardy 

 tree — ^still bearing its leaves, withered by frost and snow — 

 were great icicles, some of them the thickness of a man's leg, 

 hanging from the rocks, while deep drifts of snow lay here 

 and there around. 



As I climbed higher the grouse were left behind, and I 

 entered the ptarmigan country. The eagle was evidently 

 hunting the neighbourhood, for the ptarmigan were extremely 

 unsettled and anxious. Either singly or in packs they 

 crossed the hill above me, their flight more rapid and 

 powerful than that of a grouse. Flying noiselessly and look- 

 ing extremely beautiful, with sky and unbroken snow as their 

 background, the birds soared past me, some with never a 

 movement of their wings. They had not yet assumed the 

 complete winter plumage, and I had a fine view of a number 

 of them a little later on as they fed on the young shoots of 

 the heather. I know that certain authorities have been 

 doubtful as to whether ptarmigan will feed on the common 

 ling {Calluna vulgaris), but to-day — ^and not for the first time 

 — I had undisputed proof, for I followed the footprints of the 

 birds till they converged at an exposed patch of heather, the 

 tips of which had all been picked cleanly off. 



Notwithstanding the stormy and wintry conditions of the 

 month of June, ptarmigan seemed to be more plentiful than 

 usual that autumn, and this was also the case on the Monadh 

 Liath Mountains, to the north of the Spey valley. Near 

 where the ptarmigan had been feeding were the tracks of a 

 hare in the snow, and a little farther on a fox had passed up 

 the hill. Recently one of the stalkers of the Forest of Gaick 

 came across a fox almost entirely white. He was anxious to 

 have a shot at it, but stags were near, and a shot coming 

 at that moment would probably have spoiled the stalk. 



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