88 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP. x. 



and in floods on the Findhorn there is seldom any dearth of food 

 of this kind. Mountain sheep or wounded roe are frequently 

 swept down its rapid course, when swollen with much rain or by 

 the melting of snows on the higher mountains from whence this 

 river derives its source. This winter, a young red deer (a calf 

 of about eight months old), was found in the river. The animal 

 had been shot with a slug through the shoulder, and had probably 

 taken to the water (as wounded deer are in the habit of doing), 

 and had been drowned and carried down the stream. 



That beautiful bird, the kite, is now very rare in this country. 

 Occasionally I have seen one, wheeling and soaring at an im- 

 mense height; but English keepers and traps have nearly extir- 

 pated this bird, as no greater enemy or more destructive a foe to 

 young grouse can exist. Their large and ravenous young require 

 a vast quantity of food, and the old birds manage to keep their 

 craving appetite well supplied. Not only young grouse and black 

 game, but great numbers of young hares are carried to the nest. 

 Though a bird of apparently such powerful and noble flight, the 

 kite appears not to be very destructive to old grouse, but to con- 

 fine her attacks to the young broods. During the season of the 

 year, too, when she has no young ones to provide for, carrion of 

 all kinds forms her principal food. In consequence of her greedy 

 disposition, the kite is very easily trapped. From her habit of 

 following the course of streams, and hunting along the shores of 

 the loch in search of dead fish or drowned animals of any kind, 

 one of the most successful ways of trapping the kite is to peg 

 down the entrails of some animal in the shallow part of the water, 

 and then to place the trap either on the shore immediately adjoin- 

 ing ; or, what is often done, to form a small artificial promontory 

 close to the bait, and to set the trap on this. The garbage 

 catches the sharp eye of the bird, as she soars at a great height 

 above it, and the clever trapper seldom fails in catching her in 

 this manner. 



The buzzard is another of the hawk tribe, which is gradually 

 becoming rarer and rarer, and from the same cause. Like the 

 kite, too, the buzzard is a carrion-feeding bird, and seldom kills 

 anything but small birds, mice, or frogs, excepting during the 

 breeding-season, when it is very destructive to game ; at other 

 times the buzzard lives an indolent lazy life. After having satis- 



