214 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



longer, so down I go, and am soon seated at a table decked 

 with snowy napery and crowded with savoury comforts for 

 hungry men, very welcome in such weather as this. At 

 the head presides the hostess, and on either side are her 

 three daughters, all expert riders and skaters, each capable 

 of fishing two miles of river in good fashion, or bringing 

 down their brace of grouse, " when papa shoots the moor 

 alone," and yet possessing all those gentle graces that are 

 the boast of their unmatched countrywomen. The laird 

 comes in directly. He has been out to see his thermometers, 

 of which three or four stand at various points of vantage, 

 and rubs his hands and seems highly delighted as he reports 

 fourteen degrees of frost during the night, an announcement 

 which elicits much applause, as of course we are all keen 

 " curlers " here, and our hopes of a good season for that 

 ancient game have been rising higher and higher lately. 

 Yet neither curling nor skating were oar ambitions on this 

 particular day, which was to be devoted to a raid upon 

 numerous flocks of wildfowl that the cold weather had 

 driven to a chain of neighbouring lochs and a marshy estuary 

 through which the river emptying them ran into a land- 

 surrounded arm of the sea. 



Breakfast over, there was soon plenty of bustle in the 

 gun-room, where a sturdy Gael was busy filling cartridge- 

 cases and slinging guns to their straps. In rough shooting 

 of this sort, and more particularly in cold weather, a gun 

 that cannot be hung over the shoulder when there is no 

 chance of a shot, is anything but a pleasant companion. 

 Then an emissary from the kitchen regions appeared with 

 cook's compliments and a suggestive luncheon-basket. This 

 Donald shouldered, together with a bundle of wraps, and, 

 taking our own guns and cartridge-bags, the laird and myself 

 waved a farewell to the bright group in the porch, and 

 marched down the drive to where a dogcart was in waiting 

 outside the big gates. 



What a happy experience a fine winter's day is to those 



