240 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



Laird's orders ; but we see a really considerable number 

 of woodcocks in spite of the open weather, although 

 the number bagged is not very great. The ground is 

 broken, and it is not possible always to know where 

 the forward and side guns are placed, so there would 

 be some risk of accident if those who walk with the 

 beaters shot at low-flying birds, unless they could see 

 a clear barrier of hill in the foreground. Happily 

 to-day we have a cautious team, who all know and 

 can trust one another not to fire dangerous shots. 



Next comes a break for Christmas Day, when, 

 thanks to my rubicund face and silvery locks, I am 

 pressed into the part of Father Christmas, and made 

 to walk round past the window and enter by a circui- 

 tous route the drawing-room, where, by the side of a 

 gigantic Christmas-tree, I distribute presents and 

 crackers to a large gathering of delighted children. I 

 appreciate the thoroughness of my disguise when I am 

 condoled with by one of my nephews a little later for 

 having missed the treat. On Sunday afternoon all 

 stroll about, some to Duntroon Castle and to the sea, 

 and others, of whom I am one, to the little plantation 

 on the banks of the Scoinish, where there are tidings 

 of an otter. We do not, of course, see him, but there 

 are abundant indications of his presence. We find no 

 less than three fair-sized salmon with the titbit eaten 

 out of their shoulder and the rest left to the rats and 

 gulls. Ugly red kippers they are, with beaks like 

 reaping-hooks, and no one is disposed to play jackal 

 to the otter's lion, as is often done when the fish are 

 fresh from the sea. We can see the tracks of the 

 marauder well enough, and the broad worn path where 

 he slides down into the water. It would not be diffi- 



