48 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



by the Minch, where it was unusual for them to be, and the 

 western side of the island being so windswept in winter it is 

 impossible for any bird of that description to live. 



The Red Grouse. Resident in the Hebrides. The 

 island Grouse seem to me to differ from the mainland Grouse 

 in being redder, very few having the beautiful spotted breasts 

 so common on the moors of the Central Highlands, and on 

 the whole the birds are smaller. They differ, too, in their 

 habits ; the Hebridean Grouse are not so wild and will lie to 

 does rieht on to the end of the shooting season, but are not 

 fit to shoot till the middle of September, and, where possible, 

 should be left till the middle of October, as owing to the wet 

 climate the birds take longer to come to maturity. Their 

 flight is also different. The Central Highland Grouse rise 

 well up into the air, but the Hebridean Grouse skim the 

 ground and double like Snipe; this I ascribe to the constant 

 high wind and the presence of winged vermin. Grouse 

 disease is unknown in the Outer Hebrides. I never saw a 

 diseased bird during all my twenty-two years as keeper in 

 South Uist ; on the other hand, wire fencing caused untold 

 havoc among the birds owing to their peculiar low flight. 

 After the first three miles of fencing was erected I counted 

 seventy dead Grouse lying beside the fence. 



Peregrine preying on Merlin. In May 19 19 I found, on a 

 grassy ledge under a Peregrine's nest on a cliff in the south-west of 

 Cowall, the wing of a Merlin, which had evidently been killed but 

 a few days previously. There can be little doubt that this bird had 

 been brought to their nest by one of the Peregrines. Though the 

 Peregrine is known to kill quite a number of species of " vermin," 

 I have no recollection of seeing the Merlin included among its 

 victims. John Robertson, Glasgow. 



Spotted Redshank in East Renfrewshire. On 6th, and 

 again on 7th, September 191 9 I saw a Spotted Redshank at Balgray 

 reservoir. This is the sixth autumn in which this species has 

 occurred here, and I once observed an example, in full breeding 

 plumage, in midsummer, at the adjoining Waulkmill Glen reservoir, 

 John Robertson, Glasgow. 



