IN ASSYNT. 



they took to evil ways chicken-killing and the like. I could 

 not bear to shoot them, so set my dogs on them and drove 

 them off to the mountains. The deer are generally feeding in 

 the corries on the other side of Ben More at this time of the 

 year, but you may see them coming down to Loch Assynt at 

 times. Last summer a fine stag used to feed among the cattle 

 evening after evening in the meadow at the head of the Loch. 

 The herd-boys amused themselves by stalking it, and trying who 

 could approach nearest. It was almost always seen on the 

 Sabbath evening, but was at length shot. The badger is very 

 scarce now, if not exterminated. I killed the last which has 

 been seen hereabouts, and it is now stuffed in the museum at 

 Dunrobin." And so, taking a " richt gude willie waught " with 

 the keeper, we rise refreshed and pursue our stroll. 



If anyone should wish to know more of the birds and beasts 

 of Sutherland than these scraps, picked up during a noontide 

 halt, he may be confidently recommended to two excellent 

 papers on them published in the Natural History Society of 

 Glasgow's Transactions, by Mr. E. R. Alston and Mr. J. Harvie 

 Brown. From these papers it may be gathered that 115 

 species of birds breed in the country ; but their numbers, and 

 their abundance or scarcity in different years, present many 

 curious problems to the ornithologist. Thus there are no 

 blackbirds at Inchnadamph, near Assynt, though they are 

 common some fourteen miles off at Loch Inver ; instead of 

 them we saw ring-ousels pilfering the black currants which 

 grow in the inn-garden. The rook too is uncommon, and local 

 in Assynt. We saw not a single swallow or marten during our 

 stay. The wild cat is certainly not extinct on the higher crags, 

 nor the common marten, though they escape the notice of 

 casual observers. The curlew breeds on the moor near Loch 

 Awe ; we were attacked by the parents and a brood of five, all 

 of whom screamed and whistled as they flew near us in a very 

 insulted manner. The lesser black-backed gull is a positive 



