152 TRANSACTIONS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
sity of feature—mountain, moorland, and forest, river, swamp, and 
tarn, are disclosed in all their natural wildness. The few houses to be 
seen, besides the now deserted shooting-lodge, are those of foresters, 
stalkers, and keepers, who for nine months of the year are almost the 
sole representatives of the human race in this solitude, where in¬ 
numerable wild creatures, from the red-deer to the mouse, and from 
the eagle to the wren, find sanctuaries on the ground which is most 
suitable to each. We experience a delicious sensation of freedom 
as we stand here, far away from the hurry and bustle of life, alone 
with Nature, drinking in the fresh Highland air and watching the 
pure white clouds as they drift over us straight from the North Sea. 
The keeper points out from his door the position of a Golden Eagle’s 
eyrie over in those grey hills, where the red-deer live in company 
with the ptarmigan, the mountain hare, and the fox; and not far off, 
thanks to the protection and watchful care afforded to them by the 
proprietor of a neighbouring forest, a pair of Ospreys yearly bring up 
a brood. 
In this wild forest there is plenty of wreckage: numbers of old 
decayed trees are seen in all directions; of some nothing but the 
stump remains, while others retain enough of their main limbs and 
branches to show their noble proportions. These weird skeletons, 
ghosts of their former grandeur, stand out conspicuous against the 
dark foliage of the living trees. White and honeycombed with age, 
they are still so tough and hard of fibre that the only effect the wind 
has upon them is to blow off some crumbling dust from their 
barkless trunks. In holes and cavities in these old trees, owls and 
kestrels rear their young, and in one of them we found the eggs 
of a Goosander lying in a bed of soft white down. This is the 
abode of the Crested Tits : they build in these old decayed stumps, 
boring holes for themselves or adapting ready-made ones, and 
sometimes fitting their nests into a crevice between the bark and 
stem. 
The first nest we found was in the latter position, and in attempt¬ 
ing to examine it we accidentally broke away a piece of the friable 
bark and exposed the sitting bird to full view; she was, however, 
quite undaunted, and refused to move, till she was actually lifted 
off her eggs. She then flew to the branch of a neighbouring tree, 
where she was joined by her mate, and they both fluttered about 
within a few yards of us, scolding us well, and giving us a rare 
opportunity of inspecting them. 
Their general plumage is of a sober hue of brown and grey; 
there is a well-defined black ring on a white ground round the eyes 
which gives them a smart appearance, further enhanced by the 
distinguishing feature, the speckled crest on the head, composed of 
