22G PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



to suffer from influences sucli as severity of seasons or temporary 

 scarcity of food, which under other circumstances they would have 

 resisted successfully. Concerning the cause of that cachexia, 

 Dr Young had not formed an opinion — had only observed its 

 relation to the amount of shooting over certain moors. An 

 explanation had been given by Mr Gray, which seemed to meet 

 all the difiiculties of the case, being founded on the history of the 

 species in time, and on the peculiar circumstances in which the 

 birds are placed in this country. Dr Young concluded by asking 

 for further specimens from those who might have the oppoi'- 

 tunity to send them, with a view to the preservation of a suite of 

 specimens, illustrating the stages of the disease. 



Mr Gray, the Secretary, observed that, in reviewing the wide- 

 spread ravages of this disease, it was necessary, before forming a judg- 

 ment, to consider the changes which over-protection had brought 

 upon the life of the red grouse. The almost total annihilation of 

 its natural enemies had, to a certainty, induced ' a greater number 

 of sickly birds, and ultimately a weaker race had sprung up in dis- 

 tricts whfere formerly only strong l)irds prevailed. Buzzards and 

 hawks, etc., if allowed to live, would have captured both the sick 

 and wounded, and thus have j^revented the perpetuation of a 

 degenerate breed; and if sportsmen Avould only content them- 

 selves with a moderate bag, and allow part of the feathered stock 

 on their moors to become the prey of animals ordained by Nature 

 to play an important part in their own particular sphere, we 

 should have fewer instances of disease to chronicle. Nature, in 

 her arrangements (continued Mr Gray), is very nicely balanced, 

 but when, by man's interference, that balance is deranged, it is 

 impossible to calculate the evils that may follow. The red grouse, 

 therefore, wholly confined as it is in its geographical distribution 

 to the limited range afforded by the mountain tracts of the British 

 Islands, is in a somewhat perilous position as a species. Eigorously 

 protected for two-thirds of the year, it is suddenly subjected to a 

 destruction which has almost no parallel; and, looking to these 

 periodical outbreaks of disease, combined with this annual slaughter 

 through which the bird passes, it does not seem inconsistent with 

 common sense to predict its extinction altogether. In the struggle 

 for life, certain species have been known before now to be restricted 

 to narrow limits before their final disappearance; and, bearing this 

 fact in mind, it would be well for the holders of moors to consider 



