SEPTEMBER 243 



cock ; and in Benyellary, a mountain of 2359 feet, next 

 to the Merrick, beann iolaire, the hill of the eagles. The 

 Merrick and Benyellary are in the old forest of Buchan, 

 where, in the thirteenth century, Comyn, Earl of Buchan, 

 used to find solace in hunting the red deer. The pass 

 into Ayrshire through this forest is still known as the 

 Shalloch of Minnoch, Shalloch retaining the exact sound 

 of the Gaelic sealg, the hunting-ground. One can almost 

 fancy that the echoes of the earl's bugle still hang round 

 the crags of Mulwharker meall adhairce (aharky) the 

 hill of the hunting-horn. The tradition runs that the 

 last red stag was skin on these hills by the minister of 

 Kirkinner towards the close of the eighteenth century. 

 The ptarmigan disappeared, as an aged hill shepherd 

 informed me in my youth, in that notable year of drought, 

 1826, still remembered as ' the year o' the short corn ' ; 

 but the eagles survived for long after that. The golden 

 eagles last bred on Cairnsmore hi 1835. The young birds 

 were taken, and one remained in captivity at Cumloden 

 till the great gale of 1839 destroyed its cage and the eagle 

 escaped. I came not into existence until several years 

 after that date, yet, strange to say, I have seen that bird, 

 and it may be seen yet. 



Its fate was a melancholy one. A packman, travelling 

 the lonely road by Clatterinshaws to New Galloway, was 

 startled by a shadow flung across his path. A great bird 

 swung down from mid-air, and lighting in front of him, 

 spread its wings, and opened a formidable beak. The 

 packman, thinking he was attacked, up with his stick and 

 felled the creature, which turned out to be the escaped 

 prisoner from Cumloden, seeking food from the source 

 it had been accustomed to receive it namely, an un- 



