VI 



EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR MACGILLIVRAY'S 

 WORKS DESCRIPTIVE OF BIRD LIFE, OF 

 PERSONAL ADVENTURE FOR SCIENTIFIC IN- 

 VESTIGATION, OR OF PICTURESQUE SCENES, ETC. 



1. A NIGHT EXCURSION TO THE WELLS OF DEE. 



IT is pleasant to hear the bold challenge of the gor- 

 cock at early dawn on the wild moor remote from 

 human habitation, where, however, few ornithologists 

 have ever listened to it. I remember with delight 

 the cheering influence of its cry on a cold morning 

 in September, when, wet to the knees, and with a 

 sprained ankle, I had passed the night in a peat bog 

 in the midst of the Grampians, between the sources 

 of the Tummel and the Dee. Many years ago, when 

 I was of opinion, as I still am, that there is little 

 pleasure in passing through life dry-shod and ever 

 comfortable, I was returning to Aberdeen from a 

 botanical excursion through the Hebrides and the 

 south of Scotland. At Blair Atholl I was directed to a 

 road that leads over the hill, and which I was informed 



