THE llED GROUSE. 
53 
almost exterminated by the herds^ who — now daily on the ground 
— discover their nests and carry off the eggs. 
Sept. 13. — AVe had a ride of seven miles from the shooting 
lodge^ before reaching our ground at Glen Marson. On attain- 
ing the summit of the first hill^ the view of apparently fine grouse 
mountains on every side was superior to anything I had seen. 
Instead of presenting the hoary whitish aspect of the high Aber- 
arder ground, they were deeply browned with heath, and their 
steep sides were in some places adorned with woods of the graceful 
birch. Luxuriant junipers clothed the bases of the hills, and the 
lower parts of the steep banks of the streams. Tlieir absence 
from the higher and more exposed grounds was striking; appear- 
ing as if they had resigned those to the heath, and then crept out 
of the range of wind into the most sheltered places. Yet we 
often find the juniper in the clefts of the most lofty mountain 
summits in these islands. A profusion of the finest berries 
appeared upon these plants, on which no doubt some ring- ouzels 
which rose from amid them had been feeding, perhaps taking 
their farewell repast before moving far southward to winter in a 
genial climate. Beneath the shade of the junipers, that deli- 
cately beautiful fern, so like a native of the tropics, the Folppodnm 
dryoptens (Linn.) appeared quite brown and withered, though its 
tender green fronds are still exhibited, as freshly as at midsummer, 
about the exposed and precipitous banks of the waterfall of the 
Nairn before the shooting lodge. Around this idSi,^%Foly podium 
phegopteris (Linn.) is also of great size and beauty. The different 
appearances of the individual junipers was very striking, some of 
them strongly resembling their prototype in North America, com- 
monly known as the red cedar [Juniperus virginiana, Linn.) 
The day v^as lovely, and the views, though not very extensive, 
were to a sportsman most captivating. Bed deer had been on 
the ground not many hours before, and the true wild cat {Felis 
cattus) frequents the rocky and in many places inaccessible banks 
of a mountain torrent which crossed our path. The grouse were 
very wild. Our party separated, and soon afterwards a friend 
who was on the higher ground sprang some packs at which he 
