SPORT IN BUTE. 205 



tumn and never separate until " the time of the singing of 

 birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the 

 land." 



When the fruits and berries of early harvest begin to ripen, 

 numberless small companies of wood-pigeons shelter in the 

 shaggy copses of the Kyles, which soon unite into large assem- 

 blies under the spreading branches of the old beech-trees, to 

 regale on their delicious nuts. So long as there is abundance 

 of this beech-mast food our lawn beeches attract their myriads, 

 which vie with the rooks and starlings in giving cheerfulness 

 and animation even among the sere and yellow leaves of the 

 shortening day. 



The fine shoals of white fish that used to haunt the bays of 

 Bute, have of late years considerably deserted them. In win- 

 ter, multitudes of " herring hakes " are captured with the net 

 many of large size. I have seen hampers full on Port 

 Bannatyne quay all through January. They are good food 

 when cut into steaks and fried. One day a boy brought me 

 a basket of five very broad-shaped fish with red fins, like the 

 bream or " braise " of Loch Lomond. They were more than 

 a pound in weight, and he only asked a penny for each, and 

 was quite pleased with sixpence for the lot. He called them 

 " silver haddies," but I rather think " sea-perch " is the proper 

 name. He caught them with a hand-line and a bit of herring 

 for bait. During a whole season I fished Loch Long very 

 successfully, both with herring and mussel bait, and with hand 

 and long lines, but I never either caught or heard of this 

 " silver haddie " in that branch sea-loch of the Firth of Clyde. 



When we were driving along the Kyles for a day's partridge- 

 shooting on one of the northern farms of Bute, a whale of about 

 thirty feet long rose close to the shore. On overtaking the 

 gillie, whom we had sent forward with the evening relay of 

 dogs, he assured us with a face of awe that the whale had be- 

 come dangerous in the night, and driven the fishermen ashore. 

 Had it been one of the Arctic whales, not unfrequent in the 



