34 LIFE AT ROSEHALL. 



places to see if any deer were feeding about them, but could see 

 nothing but two or three old roe. A moment after a pair of 

 young roe walked quietly out of some concealed hollow, and 

 after gazing about a short time and having a game of romps on 

 the top of a hillock, were joined by their mother, and then all 

 three came into the woods at the foot of the craig where I was 

 sitting. The grouse were calling to each other in all directions, 

 and every now and then an old cock-bird would take a short fly, 

 crowing, to some stone or hillock, where he stood and sunned 

 himself. I was struck just then by the curious proceedings of 

 a mountain-hare, who had been feeding about two hundred yards 

 from me. She suddenly began to show symptoms of uneasiness 

 and fear, taking short runs and then stopping, and turning her 

 ears towards the hill-side behind her. I soon saw the cause of 

 her alarm in a beautiful marten cat ; the latter, however, having 

 probably already made her morning meal, took little notice of the 

 hare, but came with quiet leaps straight towards me. As I was 

 well concealed amongst the gray fragments of rock which covered 

 the top of the craig, and which were exactly the same colour as 

 the clothes I was dressed in, the little animal did not see me. 

 When about thirty yards off she suddenly stopped and looked in 

 my direction, having evidently become aware, through some of 

 her fine senses, of the vicinity of an enemy. She offered me a 

 fair shot, and, well aware of the quantity of game killed by these 

 animals, I sent a rifle ball right into her yellow chest as she sat 

 upright with her head turned towards me. 



But time advanced, so I delayed no longer, and started off in 

 a westerly direction. Many a weary mile did I tramp that day 

 without seeing anything but grouse and an occasional hare. 

 Nevertheless, I saw many fresh tracks of red deer ; particularly 

 crossing one mossy piece of ground, where there appeared to have 

 been at least twenty or thirty deer, and amongst them one or two 

 large stags. In one place I saw a solitary track of a noble stag, 

 but it was two or three days old. I judged that the herd whose 

 tracks I saw had a good chance of being in or about a corrie, of 

 which I should get a view from the next height ; but after a 



