NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 167 



BLACK GROUSE. 



Tetrao tetrix, Lin. 



Numbers frequented all the patches of corn near moorland, and, 

 as one person informed me, " very many did not go back to the 

 hill again." At Taycreggan nearly 100 Black Game were shot in 

 one small field by one gun. This is quite unprecedented in the 

 locality. A Black Cock was found frozen to a hedge " many miles 

 seaward of the heather hills and alder glens " [T. H. Gibb, 

 loc. cit.~\ 



GROUSE. 



Lagopus scoticus (Lath.). 



Grouse, by the 3rd of February, were not much affected by the 

 severe frost and snow. One correspondent believes, instead of 

 harming them, it will do them good : ' ' The ground will be opened 

 up and cleansed by the frost, and weakly birds will be killed off." 

 They were, however, reported to be dependent upon the keepers for 

 food at several periods through the winter at several inland localities : 

 and a flock — or pack — was seen in December crossing the Moray 

 Firth, and making for the Banff coast, as I am informed by my 

 friend, Mr. Thomas Mackenzie, Tain. During January a Grouse 

 came to one of the villa gardens in Callander regularly for food 

 for many days together [J. H. Buchanan, in lit.]. 



Mr. A. Williamson, of Edinburgh, who has had much experience 

 of Grouse in the Hebrides, is of the opinion that Grouse are slowly 

 dying out in Lewis. He writes : " After an experience of nine 

 years, and giving much thought to the subject, I have come to the 

 conclusion that Grouse are there slowly dying out, for which I 

 blame severe and late springs" [in lit., 26th March, 1879 J. It 

 will be interesting to note if the unusually late frosts and cold 

 spring of 1879 bear this out in any tangible statistics. Grouse 

 were scarce on the high grounds, and very plentiful on low 

 moors, in April. This is very generally reported, and might be 

 expected when the higher grounds were covered with snow long 

 into the summer. At one time Grouse were so hard up for food that 

 they were seen to follow in the tracks made by the herds of deer 

 in immense flocks [Journal of Forestry, June, 1879, p. 146]. 



Grouse were not apparently affected by the weather in Ardna- 

 murchan, or generally in the West of Scotland, up to beginning 

 of April [J. J. Dalgleish, ex ore\ They have suffered, how- 



