The paper that follows consists of the description of a ramble, extending over several days, in the hill districts near Noth and Kirknie. It is not necessary to transcribe the whole paper; but we may select the following passages as showing the keen observation as well as the character of the man. Edward had entered a narrow glen, at the bottom of which runs the burn called Ness Bogie. He was listening to the voice of the cuckoo, and the _clap-clap_ of the ring pigeons, which rose in great numbers, when an abrupt turn of the road brought him, suddenly and unexpectedly, within a few yards of a beautiful heron:—
“I immediately stood still,” he says; “the upright and motionless attitude of the bird indicated plainly that he had been taken by surprise; and for the moment he seemed, as it were, stunned, and incapable of flight. There he remained, as if fastened to the spot, his bright yellow eye staring me full in the face, and with an expression that seemed to inquire what right I had to intrude into solitudes where the human form is so rarely seen. As we were thus gazing at each other, in mutual surprise at having met in such a place, I observed his long slender neck quietly and gradually doubling down upon his breast. His dark and lengthened plumes were at the same time slightly shaken. I knew by this that he was about to rise; another moment, and he was up. Stretching his long legs behind him, he uttered a scream so dismal, wild, and loud, that the very glen and hills re-echoed the sound, and the whole scene was instantly filled with clamour. The sandpiper screamed its _kittie-needie_; the pigeon _cooed_; the pipit, with lively emotion, came flying round me, uttering all the while its _peeping_ note; the moor-cock sprang with whirring wing from his heathy lair, and gave forth his well-known and indignant _birr birr-bick_; the curlew came sailing down the glen with steady flight, and added to the noise with his shrill and peculiar notes of _poo-elie poo-elie coorlie coorlie wha-up_; and, from the loftier parts of the hills, the plovers ceased not their mournful wail, which accorded so well with the scene of which I alone appeared to be a silent spectator. But I moved not a foot until the alarmed inmates of the glen and the mountain had disappeared, and solemn stillness had again resumed its sway.”