FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 39 



victims covered with good-sized bumps which 

 did not disappear for more than a week. 



After all, it is a good deal a question of 

 temperament whether the sport ought really to 

 be called monotonous. To me, " custom cannot 

 stale its infinite variety." I have described a 

 day in a particular place certainly, to my eyes, 

 one of the loveliest spots in Scotland but there 

 is no place which has not its objects of interest 

 for eyes that are open to see them. In one 

 single August morning I have seen no less than 

 eight woodcocks flushed, each carrying a young 

 one curiously huddled up between its beak and 

 feet ; and, on another occasion, one ran up within 

 a yard of me, snapping its bill and making a 

 curious hissing noise when I picked up its half- 

 grown baby, which, it is needless to say, I had 

 no intention of hurting. But the commonest 

 birds and beasts have an interest, as you watch 

 them, unconscious of your presence. The startled 

 surprise of the hare, rabbit, or squirrel, which, 

 after feeding for some time quite close to you, 

 suddenly discovers that you are really alive, has 

 its comical element. Then thousands of lovely 

 mosses, and ferns of all kinds, from the tall 

 Osmunda to the tiny film fern, more like a moss 

 (if one may say so without a bull) than some of 

 the true mosses, disclose themselves unsought 

 in places where, as yet, they are safe from the 

 predatory instincts of collectors. The true 



