Seton Gordon

Seton Gordon Seton Paul Gordon Zoological Society of London FZS, Order of the British Empire CBE (11 April 1886 – March 1977) was a Scottish Natural history naturalist, photographer, Folklore studies folklorist, and author. Quotes Many a time I have sat up all night to take notes on the Dawn chorus (birds) wakening of the birds, which, in this part of the world, commence to sing considerably earlier than their English relations. In June, the Song thrush Thrush and Common blackbird Blackbird are often in song before 2 o'clock a.m., while the Common sandpiper Sandpipers and Eurasian oystercatcher Oystercatchers by the river never cease to call all night long. Birds of the Loch and Mountain London Cassell & Company 1907 Preface ix–xi (quote from p. xi; 181 pages text at archive.org) For the lover of the grand in nature the mountains have singular fascination. The children of the mountain, too—the stern and impassive eagle and the gentle ptarmigan—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. Chapter I. The Mountain Charm 1–5 The Charm of the Hills London Cassell & Company 2nd 1914 (1st edition 1912; quote from p. 1; text at archive.org) I think it is possible to tell, by the flight of grouse and ptarmigan, 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 Highland Railway recently, from Inverness to Perth, Scotland Perth, 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 Golden Eagle 1–40 Hill Birds of Scotland London Edward Arnold (publisher) Edward Arnold 1915 (quote from pp. 9–10; 300 pages; illustrated; text at archive.org) There is no native population in Spitsbergen, for no Sámi people Lapps, Samoyedic peoples Samoyedes, or even Eskimos, 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 whalers, but the " right whale " 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 Henry Hudson Hudson in 1607, and by 1620 the whale-hunting was at its height. Amid Snowy Wastes: Wild Life on the Spitsbergen Archipelago 1922 London Cassell & Company 2 (text at archive.org) The ptarmigan, a true mountain dweller, is sometimes the golden eagle's prey. On the Cairngorms Cairngorm Hills 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. Wild Birds in Britain The British Nature Library Charles Scribner's Sons 1938 https://books.google.com/books?id=yb8pAQAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=terrified 92 (120 pages) ... Ben Lawers is the home of rare alpine plants, one of which, Saxifraga cernua, is found nowhere else in Britain. Although rare birds are protected by Act of parliament Act of Parliament, rare plants have no protection afforded them, perhaps because such protection would be impossible to enforce. Highlands of Scotland County books series Robert Hale (publishers) Robert Hale 1951 https://books.google.com/books?id=65rkAAAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=cernua 81 (328 pages) Beyond Bernera Island Bernera, we passed the mouth of Glen Beg, where the last of the great MacCrimmon (piping family) MacCrimmon pipers had his farm. Highland Days 3rd Cassell & Company 1963 186 https://books.google.com/books?id=KPIReLlSZDwC&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=beg (232 pages) The return of the ospreys to nest successfully on a Scots fir on Strathspey, Scotland Strathspey in 1959 marked the beginning of a remarkable record of success by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in osprey protection. The osprey, handsome, inoffensive, living entirely on fish, nested in Scotland 100 years ago. Highland Summer Cassell & Company 1971 9780304937752 https://books.google.com/books?id=qls_AAAAYAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=strathspey+in+1959 70 (182 pages; illustrated) Quotes about Seton Gordon Mr. Seton Gordon is one of the few men of education who have been content to live their life in the Scottish Highlands Highlands rather than earn what many would consider to be an easier and better living elsewhere. The result is that, being a life-long observer, he knows more about the natural history of a remote region than almost anyone else. He has preferred to diffuse his wide knowledge in the form of popular books rather than as systematic papers, a fact for which many general readers are undoubtedly thankful. We of a younger generation of workers may be sorry that he does not give us a compendium or Sourcebook source-book which he alone could write and which would preserve for us the great variety of knowledge which his sensitive, inquiring mind has gathered. Frank Fraser Darling F. Fraser Darling, Nature 156 3956 219–220 25 August 1945 review of A Highland Year by Seton Gordon https://doi.org/10.1038/156219a0 10.1038/156219a0 External links Seton Gordon Undiscovered Scotland https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/g/setongordon.html Category:1886 births Category:1977 deaths Category:Naturalists from Scotland Category:Non-fiction authors from Scotland Category:Photographers from Scotland Category:University of Oxford alumni