Buzzard and Grouse
My brother and I were tramping home on the second half .of an eighteen-mile walk, and hurrying before the rain, when a buzzard rose in the rough ground Jo our right. He rose so slowly, and kept so close to the ground as he went, thgt we had visions of a freshly killed grouse, and at once hurried to search the heather rand grass. Whatever he had been at, it was nothing very large, for we searched thoroughly and searched in vain. As _ I was getting back on to the road, I saw something red on the heather, and I went back to examine it. It was part of a small field-mouse which the buzzard had dropped. I smiled fat our optimism. We were to have no freshly killed grouse, but a few yards along tile road seven birds stood watching us as 'we came uphill towards them, and they-took off at the Ipst minute, making a flight in a half-circle and landing not much farther away than they had been before. They were a fine sight, and looked so red and neat that they might have been carved in mahogany. The heather was very wet, and water streamed from the backs. Perhaps the bad weather accounted for their apparent tameness.
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