148 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



A Scottish game-watcher once told me that when- 

 ever he shot a hen Raven as she flew off her nest, 

 if he could not secure the eggs the cock always 

 devoured them, and then went off in search of a 

 fresh mate. 



Whilst in the Highlands of Scotland my brother 

 was shown a projecting crag covered with grass and 

 moss, in the side of a come, upon which a young 

 gamekeeper told him a male Buzzard deposited 

 food for his sitting mate, whose nest was situated 

 some forty or fifty feet away. It had then lying 

 upon it one young rabbit, not quite half -grown, 

 and fragments of others, but so far as he could 

 see no birds of any kind. As it was in a fairly 

 accessible position he descended to it, and made a 

 photograph, which is here reproduced. 



Although I do not think the common Buzzard 

 is regarded as a particularly dangerous bird by 

 game preservers, it is trapped in the following 

 manner : A young rabbit is killed, and after being 

 partly flayed is tied down in a spring or small 

 stream. This done, a little knoll is built close beside 

 it, and a trap, carefully hidden by moss, placed on 

 the top. No sooner has the unsuspecting bird 

 espied the tempting meal than it either alights 

 on the knoll or drags the carrion thereon to 

 devour it, and is caught by one or both legs, as 

 shown in our illustration on the preceding page, 

 which is from a photograph taken in the Hebrides. 



The Red Grouse is the only bird which we 

 can claim as purely indigenous to the British 

 Isles. Incredible sums are now spent every year 

 for the privilege of rearing and shooting the bird ; 

 and so exhilarating is the sport that I have known 

 well-to-do farmers tramp thirty or forty miles a 

 day as beaters for three shillings and sixpence and 



