from the awful snow-drifts which so frequently occur in their native districts. On this head, Sir John Crewe
requested Turner, his head keeper, to supply him with all the information in his power; and the following
is the note with which Sir John has favoured me reply to your letter respecting the Red Grouse
perching on trees, I have noticed them to perch more frequently on the larch than any other kind of fir tree,
they also frequently perch on the hawthorn. On one occasion during last November I was going round
some corn-fields at Ferneyford; and in an old thorn that grows in the fence I saw a number of Grouse; I
cannot exactly say how many, but I believe there could not have been less than five b ra c e : they continued
in the tree until I got within a few yards o f them. The autumn is the time when they are more frequently
seen to take to the trees.”
Much has been written respecting the disease to which o f late years the Grouse have been subject; but
it would be out o f place to recapitulate a tithe of what has been recorded on this head in the present work :
those to whom this kind o f information is of interest will find it in the ‘ Sporting Review,’ ‘ The Field,' g Land
and Water,’ and other periodicals o f the like kind. The fearful visitation o f cholera, the murrain among
cattle, the ravages among the potato crop, and the Grouse-disease, all arise from causes a t present unknown.
The mystery may yet be solved ; but, in the absence o f such knowledge, the disorder among the Grouse may
perhaps be attributable to overcrowding. The wholesale destruction of our predatory birds, particularly
the Eagle and the Peregrine, which take advantage o f the feeblest of the pack, instead o f attacking the
boldest and most vigorous, must have had its influence; and the well-being of the community will necessarily
suffer from such a wholesome check being taken away. On this head, Mr. St. John writes, “ Whatever is the
cause of this mortality, it is a matter of some consequence to the proprietors of those districts where the
Grouse-shootings let for as high o r a higher rent than the sheep-pasturage; for it can scarcely be expected
that Englishmen will continue paying a t the rate they do for the right of shooting over tracts o f ground
where the grouse a re becoming almost- extinct, as is the case in several places. Instead o f sparing the birds
where they are attacked by this epidemic, I should be much more inclined to shoot down every Grouse in
the infected part o f the h ills; and I would continue to do this as long as any appearance o f the disease
remained; I would then give them a year or two o f rest, according to the numbers and appearance o f the
birds. This seems to me the most likely way to check the destruction caused by what the keepers
call the ‘ Grouse-disease.’ In some parts o f the Highlands there were scarcely any young birds seen in
August; and the old Grouse were picked up in dozens dead on the heather.”— Tour in Sutherland, vol.i. p. 275.
“ T he great changes,” says Mr. Robert Gray, ¡n his * Birds o f the West o f Scotland,’ page 232, “ 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, have induced both landowners and lessees to clear the ground
of all kinds of animals that would naturally prey upon those birds which are not strong enough to protect
themselves; hence sickly broods of Grouse perpetuate other broods, that year by year degenerate until
disease ensues, and in some instances almost depopulates an entire district. There can be no doubt
that this unwarrantable destruction of Hawks and Buzzards affects adversely the condition o f 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 o f enfeebled, life. In almost every case
where undue protection is given to certain animals by the rigorous destruction o f 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 o f the Red Grouse to its original
vigour, no one can say what may be the final issue of the somewhat anomalous position in which, as a species,
the latter bird is now unfortunately placed.”
Considerable difference exists in the coloration o f the Grouse in different parts of the British Islan d s:
those o f Ireland are very much lighter and more uniform in hue than those o f Scotland ; and the Welsh
birds are somewhat similarly marked,—neither having the rich black breasts o f those which frequent the
Cheviots and the Grampians. Little difference occurs in the weight of birds o f the same age and sex in
one and in another of these localities. I have weighed many from each of them, and find the average
in September to be about twenty-five onnces; many will weigh less, and a few as much as thirty-
two ounces; but a two-pound. Grouse must be considered a very large one, and it is not above one in a
thousand th at attains such a weight. The heaviest birds weighed for me by Mr. John Fowler, when he had
the shooting a t Glen Fernat, were respectively twenty-five, twenty-seven, and thirty one ounces; but he tells
me he has seen three (two a t Glen Fernat, and one at Brae More) that turned the scale of two pounds.
The eggs are from ten to fourteen in number, of a reddish ground-colour, nearly covered with blotches
and spots o f rich umber-browh.
The Plate represents the adult, and part o f a brood o f young, as they appear about the 20th o f August.