Fishing -- Scotland; Hunting -- Scotland; Salmon fishing -- Great Britain; Spanish American literature -- History and criticism
“It would be, as far as I remember,” he said, “between the 6th and
10th of October in the year 1888 when I was spying one morning
at the forest stables. I picked up a stag on the top of Glen
Shieldaig, quietly feeding on the Glaschnoc side, and while having
my glass still on the stag an eagle swooped down on his head. The
stag fell on his hind-quarters, but was soon on his feet again and
ran for his life while the eagle was fixed on him. The stag made
for a thick clump of birch-trees, and immediately the stag got
under cover the eagle could not keep its hold, owing to the thick
branches of the trees, and left the stag. The eagle kept hovering
for some time above the wood where the stag was concealed, but at
last flew away.”
Whilst stalking in the neighbouring forest of Applecross two years
ago, Colonel the Hon. Claude Willoughby had a most interesting
experience, a description of which he has kindly given me
permission to reproduce here:
“On 30th September, 1921,” he writes, “I was stalking with Alick
Mackenzie on Applecross. We had come through Corrie Chaorachan into
Corrie Na Na and spied a stag with hinds on the west face above the
loch. The wind was west, and after a difficult and exceedingly good
stalk across the Corrie and above these deer, avoiding hinds, also
another stag with hinds, we arrived at a point within 150 yards
of the stag we were after and found him lying down. Owing to the
light and the distance, I determined to wait for him to rise before
shooting. After waiting half an hour, hinds which we had seen
beyond the place where he was lying came galloping past him. He
rose and I shot him; he fell dead. We at once saw that the reason
of these hinds galloping was that an eagle was after a calf which
had separated from the herd. We saw the eagle land on the calf’s
back twice, but the calf escaped.
“The eagle then attacked a hind in the herd. A kestrel hawk now
joined in, and mobbed the eagle. This attack lasted only a short
time. The eagle then circled round my dead stag, the kestrel soon
after disappearing. The eagle settled on a rock about five yards
from the dead stag, and remained there until we showed ourselves.
All this took place within 200 yards of us.
“On the Tuesday following Lord Derwent was also stalking on
Applecross, near Corrie Attadale. He and the head stalker Finlayson
saw an eagle attack a calf, which it knocked down twice, but the
calf escaped.”
[Illustration: THE APPLECROSS HILLS, AND A HIGHLAND FISHING
VILLAGE.
By FINLAY MACKINNON.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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