28 



TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. 



CH. II. 



finding something in the nest, calculating, probably, 

 as we had done, that the ospreys would not have 

 been sitting on an empty nest. 



On returning to the inn at Scowrie I found 

 that my friend had been more profitably employed 

 in catching a dish of fine-looking though muddy 

 tasted trout in a small rushy loch close to the inn. 



One of the Duke of Sutherland's foresters 

 brought in a very fine white-tailed eagle, which 

 he had shot the day before : unluckily the plumage 

 was quite destroyed in consequence of the keeper 

 having, to " make sure," discharged his gun at the 

 bird a second time after it had fallen, in conse- 

 quence of which the head was nearly blown off. 

 I procured, however, some feathers for the large 

 salmon fly which we fish with in the Spey river, 

 in making which the eagle's feather is the prin- 

 cipal material employed. 



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