32 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Gairloch the bags used to consist of Black-game, Partridges, 

 and Brown Hares ; now there is not a single head of Black- 

 game, nor a Partridge, nor even a Brown Hare to be found. 

 From Cape Wrath I may say to the Clyde the Partridges 

 are extinct, or very nearly so ; they used to be fairly 

 plentiful all up and down this west coast, and quite good in 

 many parts of Skye and Argyll, and even here, with only 

 little bits of arable, I have killed as many as 50 brace in a 

 season in the sixties and seventies. No one can account for 

 their disappearance, and though they have been reintro- 

 duced on various occasions, the restocking has been of no 

 avail. 



Though Red 'Grouse have not done very well on this 

 coast for the last few years, there are still enough on some 

 parts to replenish it, if we could get a few good breeding 

 seasons. Both north and south of us, however, I hear very 

 ominous reports of districts where big bags were once made, 

 and where about 900 brace used to be the bag now there 

 are next to none. Similar reports come from some of the 

 inland portions of Inverness-shire, and from many of the 

 islands from I slay right up to the Lews, where it is feared 

 Grouse shooting will soon be a thing of the past. 



I have a record of all the game killed on a property on 

 the West Coast from 1866 to 191 6. In the seventies (1872) 

 1839 Grouse were shot, and 1244 and 1356 were killed in 

 1890 and 1 89 1. Since then they have gone down and down 

 till they got to 98, 90, 85, 62, and only 31 in 1914. The 

 Black-game on the same estate used to amount to from 80 

 (upwards or downwards), now they run from 1 to 3 on an 

 average for a season. The Ptarmigan used to be from 59, 

 47, and 55 each year, and after coming down as low as 4 

 they seem quite to have disappeared. From many other 

 hills that used to hold them, our own hill of about 2600 

 feet included, the White Grouse has completely vanished. 



The Grey Lag-Goose, which we formerly considered a 

 nuisance, especially when flocks of them devoured our 

 young oats in spring, used to hatch out their broods in 

 the islands of many of our lochs. They too have left us, 

 and are not likely ever to return. We are now surprised 



