Seton Gordon

I think it is possible to tell, by the flight of and , whether they are seeking to escape their hereditary enemy, the eagle, or their more recent but much more deadly enemy, man. As a general rule, when the eagle is the cause of disturbance the grouse fly at a greater height above ground and their flight is more precipitate and aimless than when man is the cause of alarm. It is of interest to realise how strong is the hereditary instinct of dread felt towards the eagle, and in obedience to this instinct grouse will cheerfully face in great numbers a whole line of guns which must spell death to them, rather than approach the locality where the eagle has been spied. I was travelling on the recently, from to , and just at the county march, where the line borders on the 1500 feet level, I saw a grouse cross the line above the train, flying high and with a distinctive rocking flight. I was almost certain that an eagle, and not the Highland express, was the cause of alarm, and sure enough, on looking out of the opposite window, I saw the enemy there sailing far off above the top of a neighbouring hill.

The , a true mountain dweller, is sometimes the golden eagle's prey. On the I have frequently seen an eagle chasing, in play, a covey or pack of ptarmigan, and seeming to find satisfaction in the bewildering and aimless flight of the terrified birds.

There is no native population in , for no s, es, or even s, have ever settled there. Three hundred years ago the bays and seas of West Spitsbergen were a favourite whale-fishing ground to which most of the seafaring nations of Europe sent fleets of s, but the " " is long extinct in Spitsbergen waters, and the whaling industry has now disappeared. Spitsbergen was discovered by the Dutch in 1596; whales were found by in 1607, and by 1620 the whale-hunting was at its height.

For the lover of the grand in nature the mountains have singular fascination. The children of the mountain, too—the stern and impassive and the gentle —seem to have instilled into them the true spirit of the mist, and thus appeal to the nature lover more forcibly than the denizens of less romantic regions. The mountains attract at every season of the year—in winter, when their corries are buried deep under their snowy covering; in spring, when this snowy mantle has been broken by the strengthening sun, aided by soft breezes from the south; and in summer, when an occasional snowfield lingering here and there still reminds one of the winter that is past, but when the corries are clothed with grass of an exquisite green.

Many a time I have sat up all night to take notes on the , which, in this part of the world, commence to sing considerably earlier than their English relations. In June, the and are often in song before 2 o'clock a.m., while the s and s by the river never cease to call all night long.

The return of the s to nest successfully on a Scots fir on in 1959 marked the beginning of a remarkable record of success by the in osprey protection. The osprey, handsome, inoffensive, living entirely on fish, nested in Scotland 100 years ago.

... is the home of rare s, one of which, , is found nowhere else in Britain. Although rare birds are protected by , rare plants have no protection afforded them, perhaps because such protection would be impossible to enforce.

Beyond , we passed the mouth of Glen Beg, where the last of the great had his farm.