our shores being often found after their occurrence literally strewn with Guillemots, Razorbills, and other
sea-birds; in proof o f which the following iustances recorded in the ‘ Zoologist ’ for 1872 may be cited.
“ After the severe storm o f January,” says Mr. H. Rogers (writing from the Isle o f Wight), “ our shores
from Compton Bay to Watercombe Bay were lined with Razorbills, Guillemots, &c. I had upwards of a
hundred brought to me between the 25th and 31st, most o f them in a very bad condition, which had
evidently perished for want o f food. Seven Gannets were also picked up and brought to me : this I consider
very remarkable. We do occasionally get a specimen in very hard winters ; but for seven o f these powerful
birds to be driven dead upon our shores shows the severity of the storm.
Mr. Stephen Clogg, writing from Looe two days later (February 20), says, “ The south-eastern shores o f
Cornwall have been covered with the dead bodies o f various birds during the present month. In a walk of
about a mile I numbered no less than sixty-nine dead bodies of Razorbills, in various stages of decay. This
state of things extends for upwards o f ten miles; and when we consider tbe great numbers th at have been
carried away for the purpose of making plumes for ladies’ hats, and others that did not come ashore, I think
we may safely conclude that thousands of the above-named species of birds have perished in this immediate
neighbourhood within a fortn ig h t; and if such has been the case in other parts of England, how vast most
have been the mortality amongst th em !”
To the above instances Mr. Newman, the indefatigable editor of the ‘ Zoologist,’ adds in a note, “ This
morning (February 21 st) I met a man going over London Bridge with a clothes-basket full of Razorbills: he
could not, or would not, tell me how he came by th em ; hut, by the blood on the plumage, I think they had
come by a violent death.”
Lastly disease, the greatest o f all misfortunes, plays its sad p art among birds as well us among quadrupeds
and man. Grouse, as we all kuow, are frequently visited with great severity, and the sweeping hand of
death is not satisfied until all but a remnant have succumbed to its ravages. Nature, in her wisdom, may
cause all these various modes o f destruction to take effect for some good end—to check, perhaps, an
inordinate increase o f a particular species: quite certain it is th at she never intended that five thousand Grouse
should be bred on a Lancashire moor, or that a thousand Blue Hares should inhabit the crown o f a single
Scottish hill, as is often the case.
This unnatural over-crowding o f the G rouse and Hares may have arisen in the case o f the former from the
extreme care and attention bestowed upon them, and, as regards the latter, from the killing down o f the
Golden Eagles and Foxes, o f whose food the Blue Hare constitutes a large proportion; and upon its undue
increase they were doubtless intended to afford a wholesome check.
“ The jealous care,” says Mr. Robert Gray, in his ‘Birds of Western Scotland,’ “ with which this
beautiful bird is protected appears of late years to have affected the wellbeing of the species;” and “ I
cannot withhold expressing a fear that the Red Grouse of Scotland, it not soon left to its own resources, may
ultimately become a victim to overprotection. The great changes that have taken place within the last thirty
years in the management o f moorland tracts, and the excessive rents now derived from such properties, induced
both land-owners and lessees to clear the ground o f all kinds of animals that would prey upon those birds
whicb are not strong enough to protect themselves; hence sickly broods of Grouse perpetuate other broods,
that year by year degenerate until disease ensues and iu some instances almost depopulates an entire
district. There can be no doubt that this unwarrantable destruction of Hawks and Buzzards affects
adversely the condition of the birds with which our Scottish mountains are stocked—the number o f wounded
birds alone which survive the unprecedented annual slaughter through which the Red Grouse is now obliged
to pass being an argument sufficient to show that such merciful agents are wanted to prevent the spread of
enfeebled life. In other sections of the animal kingdom epidemics similar to that affecting Grouse have
been noticed; and, so far as my own observations have enabled me to judge, I am disposed to regard these
periodical outbreaks of disease as more or less associated with a derangement of Nature’s laws. In almost
every case where undue protection is given to certain animals by the rigorous destruction of others, man’s
interference is followed, sooner or later, by evils o f a graver nature than those which the protective measures
were intended to c u re ; and until some more rational plan is tried for the restoration of the Red Grouse to
its original vigour, no one can say what may be the final issue o f the somewhat anomalous position in which,
as a species, the bird is now undoubtedly placed.”
I can fully indorse the general remarks o f Mr. Gray respecting the inconvenience arising from the undue
protection afforded to certain species by the rigorous destruction of others. Strange as it may appear, the
keeper who supposes that he is zealously guarding the interests of his employer by ruthlessly destroying all
vermin from the estate is in some instances committing an error. As an example in point, and one not
mentioned by the writer above quoted, I may remark upon the destruction o f the W hite Owl, which, injuring
the game to a very small extent, confers much compensatory benefit in the destruction of the mice, rats, and
weasels upon which it feeds. Our pretty Kestrel, too, often suffers an ignominious fate without a reasonable
excuse, its food generally consisting o f moles, mice, lizards, frogs, and the larger insects. Considerable
latitude, however, must be accorded to the keeper, who, with all his care and anxiety, is frequently
nonplused by the continued loss of his young game, and that coming from a quarter little to be suspected.
Some o f the more intelligent of his class have, by constant watching, delected the Brown Owl habitually
haunting the vicinity of their pens, and seizing, as occasion offered, two or three o f their chicks. The Moorhen
( Gallínula chloropus), too, stealthily threading its way through the grass, is no less to be dreaded, its
presence among the coops not resulting solely in the abstraction o f the scattered grain, but frequently in the
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