SPOET AT POLTALLOCH 231 



and there is hard weather or snow on the mainland, 

 you may happen upon a flight of cock which will give 

 you sport beyond your wildest expectations. If you 

 are a naturalist as well as a sportsman, you will have 

 an unrivalled opportunity of observing and studying 

 the habits of the rarer ducks and the waders and shore 

 birds, and will probably have a chance of fathoming 

 the inner meaning of the proverbial expression " a 

 wild-goose chase." You may also see but I hope 

 you will not shoot that magnificent and graceful wild 

 swan, the Hooper. They are regular visitors to Islay, 

 Colonsay, Coll, and Tiree, those paradises of the wild- 

 fowler ; but I am glad to say they are very rarely 

 interfered with. Although our ancestors liked to have 

 them on their tables, I fancy it was more for show 

 than for food ; a young cygnet is fairly palatable, but 

 you will be very unlucky if your day's sport does not 

 furnish something for the pot more palatable and 

 more suitable to the resources of an inn-kitchen than 

 a wild swan. 



Now let us hark back to Poltalloch, where, after 

 a game of billiards, the whole party turn in early, 

 rejoicing in the prospect of shooting the home beat 

 the next day. Travelling and sea air make one sleepy, 

 and I can hardly believe that it is time to get up 

 when a knock at the door and the announcement that 

 it is seven o'clock, rouses me from a sound slumber. 

 Breakfast is at eight on shooting days, when we start 

 at ten, as the sun sets soon after three. It is dark 

 enough when I go into my dressing-room, after just 

 forty winks more, but the electric light now deprives 

 early rising of what was formerly its principal draw- 

 back. My window looks out over Crinan Bay and 



