202 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Mackenzie of Earlshall writes : " There seems to me no 

 doubt whatever that the Grouse have fairly established them- 

 selves, and would rapidly increase to the fullest capacity of 

 the heather on the ground, if they were properly protected 

 from the ravages of their enemies human as well as winged, 

 etc. Last year I came on great numbers of their eggs 

 which had been devoured by hoodies, which are far too 

 numerous, and my watchers came on at least one band of 

 nesters with Grouse eggs in their possession. It seems to 

 me, therefore, that the Grouse must take very kindly to the 

 place indeed, to have survived on it at all under the 

 conditions which seem to prevail here." Mr. Mackenzie also 

 complains that all his efforts to thin the ranks of the crows 

 are ineffective; for whenever they are molested on his ground 

 these wary birds simply betake themselves for the time 

 to the large pine-woods in the neighbourhood where, as 

 they know, they have nothing to fear, and where they can 

 remain secure till, the danger having passed, they may once 

 more enter upon their persecution of the Grouse in safety. 

 From my own experience, I can testify to the difficulty of 

 trapping crows on ground where a plentiful supply of their 

 natural food in the shape of young, or in wet weather- 

 drowned rabbits can almost always be obtained. Shoot- 

 ing them in the open is practically impossible. As for a 

 pole-trap, for my part, I cannot on any terms tolerate that 

 almost inhuman engine ; and in any case where owls, 

 terns, and other harmless and interesting birds so abound, 

 the crows hunting the moor would seldom find the trap 

 unoccupied, and no good would result from the use of one. 



The protection of the northern part of the moor has 

 been most beneficial, not to the Grouse only, but to those 

 wild birds which nest there as well. Sheldrakes, eiders, etc., 

 breed, I think, in increasing numbers. By " protection " is 

 here meant entire prohibition and, so far as is practicable, 

 prevention of all unauthorised egg-gathering, together with 

 rigorous persecution of the crows, but not, let me add, of 

 owls and kestrels, or of the merlins or the rarer and larger 

 Raptores which may occasionally visit the moor at migration 

 time, and which are in general sedulously preserved. Where 

 the ground is protected, some species of wild birds at least 



