272 IVILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



of various robts ; amongst others, I have frequently found 

 about their hole the bulb of the common wild blue hyacinth. 

 Fruit of all kinds and esculent vegetables form his repast, and 

 I fear that he must plead guilty to devouring any small animal 

 that may come in his way, alive or dead ; though, not being 

 adapted for the chase, or even for any very skilful strategy of 

 war, I do not suppose that he can do much in catching an 

 unwounded bird or beast. Eggs are his delight, and a part- 

 ridge's nest with seventeen or eighteen eggs must afford him a 

 fine meal, particularly if he can surprise and kill the hen-bird 

 also ; snails and worms vihich he finds above ground during 

 his nocturnal rambles are likewise included in his bill of fare. 

 I was one summer evening walking home from fishing in Loch 

 Ness, and having occasion to fasten up some part of my tackle, 

 and also expecting to meet my keeper, I sat down on the shore 

 of the loch. I remained some time, enjoying the lovely pro- 

 spect : the perfectly clear and unruffled loch lay before me, 

 reflecting the northern shore in its quiet water. The opposite 

 banks consisted, in some parts, of bright green sward, sloping 

 to the water's edge, and studded with some of the most beautiful 

 birch-trees in Scotland ; several of the trees spreading out like 

 the oak, and with their ragged and ancient-looking bark re- 

 sembling the cork-tree of Spain — others drooping and weeping 

 over the edge of the water in the most lady-like and elegant 

 manner. Parts of the loch were edged in by old lichen-covered 

 rocks ; while farther on a magnificent scaur of red stone rose 

 perpendicularly from the water's edge to a very great height. 

 So clearly was every object on the opposite shore reflected in 

 the lake below, that it was difficult, nay impossible, to distin- 

 guish where the water ended and the land commenced — the 

 shadow from the reality. The sun was already set, but its rays 

 still illuminated the sky. It is said that from the sublime to 

 the ridiculous there is but one step ; — and I was just then 

 startled from my reverie by a kind of grunt close to me, and 

 the apparition of a small waddling grey animal, which was busily 

 employed in hunting about the grass and stones at the edge of 

 the loch; presently another, and another, appeared in a little 

 grassy glade which ran down to the water's edge, till at last I 

 saw seven of them busily at work within a few yards of me, all 

 coming from one direction. It at first struck me that they 



