SPORT AT POLTALLOCH 241 



cult to trap him ; but the Laird likes to have a few 

 about, in spite of their mischievous habits, and I have 

 a good deal of sympathy with his desire to have all 

 the fauna of Argyllshire fairly represented, even if some 

 of them take toll of the game and fish. If the mis- 

 guided energy of keepers was transferred from the 

 destruction of peregrine falcons, and even such smaller 

 falconidse as the hobby and merlin, to the rat and the 

 jackdaw, it would be better both for the game- preserver 

 and the farmer ; and the lover of nature would more 

 often be able to watch the magnificent spectacle of the 

 swoop of the peregrine on grouse, curlew, or wild duck, 

 or to see the same performance repeated in miniature 

 by his duodecimo edition, the merlin, in pursuit of 

 pipit, lark, or snipe. 



r. There are only two more days before the beaters 

 are dismissed, on one of which we beat the woods of 

 Largie round Carnasary Castle, while the other is 

 spent in the plantations between Crinan Moss and 

 Duntroon, ending up at Mheall and Moine-an-Tarbh. 

 On neither day does the bag exceed one hundred and 

 fifty head, but quality again makes up for the absence 

 of any considerable quantity. On the whole the 

 weather is kind to us, for although we have " some 

 showers," there is nothing to stop shooting, and we 

 are spared the crowning infliction of heavy snow. 

 This latter is not a very common experience on the 

 West Coast, but I have a vivid recollection of the 

 heavy fall of December 1909, which caught us on the 

 slopes of Kirnan, more than eight miles from home, 

 and rendered the road impracticable for motors on the 

 return journey. It was a long and slippery walk 

 across the hill and through Ballimore before we found 



Q 



