14 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



food already mentioned, various of the mountain 

 and forest berries are eaten. Here, where the 

 capercailzie has its haunt, the wild cat once lived 

 among the rocks. 



THE EDGE OF THE WOOD 



THE only fit setting for the pine is that of the sublime 

 and majestic solitudes which have produced it. In 

 this combination there is perfect harmony; or at 

 least in those Highland districts where the golden 

 eagle still yelps as it flies down the corrie, where the 

 salmon leaps in the burn pools, and the red-deer bells 

 from the hills. For even to-day such spots there 

 are. Of the wild mountain and moorland tracts, the 

 pine forest seems to centre about it the life of the 

 district. In it the corbie crow builds, and on its 

 confines may be heard daily the hoarse croak of the 

 raven. There is no tinge of superstition in the fact 

 that this sable saulie in his overflow of animal spirits 

 may be heard to laugh, as he goes dallying round and 

 round some dead herd wick. Upon his steel-blue 

 legs he whets his formidable bill, and then, by cut 

 and tierce, digs at lip, palate, brain or nostril. 

 And the " majestic " eagle, monarch of the glen and 

 foul feeder at once, hastens to enjoy the meal- 



