194 TRANSACTIONS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
the weather, which had been fickle, alternating in high winds and flat 
calms, and one afternoon, which was no exception to previous 
experience, after a sharp storm of thunder with heavy squalls, we 
were left floating on a mirror between earth and sky; the wooded 
islands, with their wealth of flowers, and the bare barren hills which 
surrounded us were reflected in all their details in the motionless 
water. A pair of sandpipers chattered as they ran along the 
margin of a sandy bay, and a meadow pipit on the hillside piped his 
melancholy, discontented note in harmony with our own mood. 
Looking up to the desolate grey mountain tops we talked of 
Ptarmigan, and recalled to mind many memories of past scrambles 
among their haunts. We had never seen a Ptarmigan’s nest, nor had 
we visited the birds themselves in the breeding season, and we longed 
for an excuse to stretch our legs after being so long in a cramped 
position in the boat. The keeper said he knew where there were 
plenty of birds, but the discovery of a nest was by no means a 
certainty; he promised, however, to show us the eyrie of a golden 
eagle, which, although late in the season, was still in occupation, 
so, having two strings to our bow, we decided to go on the morrow. 
The morning broke fine and clear, with 
“ the wind in the east 
Neither fit for man nor beast,” 
and, mindful of the old fishing rhyme, we left our rods at home, and 
started with a clear conscience for the hills. 
A grand mass of mountain, standing conspicuous above the rest, 
was our objective point, as it w^as known that the stony plateaux 
below its double peak were inhabited by Ptarmigan. 
Before commencing the ascent, a long tedious walk lay before us 
up a narrow glen, at the head of which the steep rampart of rocks 
seemed from a distance to be insurmountable, but the steady 
swinging pace, which is acquired in mountain climbing, overcame all 
obstacles, and in time we were perched up on a high crag surveying 
the scene around us with our glasses. 
Several lochs over which we had cast our flies lay shining like 
shields of silver through the haze which the east wind had brought 
up; on a patch of emerald green close to a tarn some deer were 
quietly feeding, and we heard a raven croaking among some rocks 
above our heads. On reaching the top of the ridge, we enjoyed our 
first sight of the eagles, whose nest we had come to visit; they came 
sailing over our heads, and wheeled about lazily in wide circles 
after the manner of their kind. While we watched them, a third 
eagle appeared on the scene, whose presence was resented by the 
home birds, one of which fiercely attacked the intruder, and a com¬ 
bat took place between them; they struck at each other with their 
