59 



rock about two hundred yards off and await the 

 return of the bird to her nest. 



I then sent off one of the men to the pony for 

 what was left of our eatables and drinkables, and 

 we made ourselves as comfortable as the circum- 

 stances would permit. 



The head keeper, who had joined us, said he 

 had observed our pony from the lower cairn, and 

 thinking we were from the Rannoch side of the 

 hill, he had come up to order us off the ground, for 

 he had a great antipathy to the people who marched 

 with him in that direction, as they frequently came 

 on his side of the hill and shot his hares and 

 Ptarmigan. On the last occasion he had met with 

 them about half a mile over the march, and after 

 informing them that he had no desire to give them 

 another day's shooting had sternly walked away 

 refusing all manner of tempting liquors which had 

 been pressed upon him. 



Poor old Sandy is gone, and I should be sorry 

 to throw doubt on any of his statements, but still I 

 can scarcely credit the latter part of his story, as 

 Sandy dearly loved his native mountain dew. 



We had been rather more than an hour sitting 

 under the shelter of the rock with all the dogs 

 gathered round us, when a collie, which had been 

 lying within a yard of my feet got up, shook the 

 wet from his coat, and lay down again, this time 

 changing his position by about a foot. He now 

 chose the brown back of a female Ptarmigan to 

 recline upon, which, causing a great flutter, startled 

 the dog as much as the bird herself. 



On her flying off we discovered she had 

 been sitting on eight eggs. The nest was within a 

 couple of yards of the spot where we had sat for 

 more than an hour, and it was a wonder, with so 

 many dogs about, that some of them had not 

 stumbled on her sooner. As this bird would be the 

 most perfect, I determined to obtain her instead 

 of the one which had been caught by the terrier. 



