ANIMAL MAGIC
successfully hauling salmon out of the water and dragging them up on to the bank. As many of these excellent fish were taken from the English side of the river, the landowner there, Lord Tankerville, became so enraged that he filed a lawsuit – against the dog. After a considerable battle (the case was entitled ‘Lord Tankerville versus a dog – the property of the Earl of Home’), the dog won. The victor wasn’t the first or last to catch a fish – dogs in those days frequently acted as accomplices to poachers. In 1967 Willie Munro, the head stalker on the Wyvis estate in Suther-
I
‘We have come a long way from the dark days when lark pie was served up for dinner’
Left: This oystercatcher has made a nest in an unusual spot. Top: Mervyn Knox Browne, who advises on bracken control and heather management, discusses his life in the countryside in the book. Above: A wood mouse.
land, hand-reared a deer calf. She was often seen travelling in the passenger seat of his car, even when she was almost fully grown. The hind followed him everywhere, even out stalking. Eventually, his much- loved animal gave birth to a calf of her own, and eventually the two hinds were witnessed following their owner on stalking expeditions. They lay quietly chewing the cud while a stag was shot, and remained unperturbed when the animal fell to the ground, or when it was bled and gralloched, before following their owner home again. These are just two of a wealth of tales that my co-author Mary Low
and I found as we worked on Fauna Scotica: Animals and People in Scotland. As well as copious natural history – we looked at everything from ticks, foxes and owls to squirrels, lobsters and whales – there are anecdotes, observations and interviews with people working with animals today. Fauna Scotica is not intended as a definitive guide; rather, it is a celebration
of the interaction between humans and animals from the earliest times to the present day. This interaction plays a crucial role in linking us to the natural world – a link that is perilously close to being broken as we move away from the country into an industrialised, urbanised future.
WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK 113
n 1743 the Earl of Home, an angler of repute, landed a massive salmon on his home beat on the River Tweed. His loyal dog always accompanied him and it too became skilled in the art of fishing,
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