CH. XXXV. BURNING OF HEATHER. 253 



check to the devouring element. Plantations of 

 considerable extent are sometimes burnt. In 

 Strathspey this year (1848) a great loss occurred 

 from this cause. Heather for miles in extent was 

 burnt, and nearly a hundred acres of fine plantation 

 were destroyed before the fire could be checked — 

 a miniature imitation, in short, of the prairie 

 burnings of the far West. A large heather burning 

 on a hill-side has a most picturesque appearance in 

 a dark night, as the flames dance rapidly along the 

 slopes, making the surrounding darkness appear 

 still more deep. AVhen the burnings occur too late 

 in the season, and during the time that the grouse 

 and black game have eggs, great destruction takes 

 place, not of the eggs only, but of the parent birds ; 

 whereas judicious burning is advantageous equally 

 to the sheep farmer and the grouse shooter, the 

 same succession of heather of diflFerent ages being 

 requisite for the well-being of both sheep and 

 game. 



The wild enemies of sheep in Scotland are daily 

 and rapidly decreasing. A very few years ago the 

 sheep farmer sustained great loss from foxes, eagles, 

 ravens, &c. : even the common grey crow will take 

 to killing the new-born lambs, pecking out their 

 eyes as soon as the little animals are dropped, and, 

 if not killing them on the spot, leaving them to 



