142 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



up its numbers, at no time being more abundant than it is 

 now. Although the Sutherland shootings in the East have been 

 very much sub-divided of late, and consequently far more birds are 

 yearly killed, no doubt the stricter preservation from vermin, 

 Hoodie Crows in particular, enables them to keep up their numbers. 

 They appear, however, to be much wilder than formerly, and in the 

 more open moors a good deal of stalking has to be done to make 

 up a bag in October, whereas ten years ago, you could shoot over 

 dogs anywhere up to the end of the season ; no doubt their 

 increased numbers make them pack more, and so they are more on 

 the alert. Early in March the cocks begin to chase the hens, and 

 about the middle of April the first eggs are laid, but the greater 

 bulk not until the middle or end of May, and I believe, on some 

 occasions, the late nests are not hatched out till August. Grouse 

 vary a great deal in colouring, the cocks more so than the hens. The 

 commonest variety by far is that with a black breast and a good 

 deal of white down the middle, the next, that with a red breast and 

 the white feathers, and the third and rarest, as it seemed to me, and 

 certainly so on my shooting at Balnacoil, the real Eed Grouse with 

 few or no white feathers. I have occasionally got birds with a 

 black breast, and no, or at least very few, white feathers, but these 

 were much darker on the back, as a rule, and were almost a true 

 melanite. Many Grouse are very much marked and mottled with 

 white, some very beautifully so, and this seems to run in families, 

 for before our shooting season my keeper had noticed a bird that 

 was very much marked with white, and this bird was shot during 

 October of that year. Next season, near the same place, there was 

 another covey which contained three or four of these white mottled 

 birds, and I shot a very good pair, of which, however, I only kept 

 the cock. It is common to meet with birds whose primaries are 

 very strongly marked with white on the outside edging. Hen 

 Grouse are, as a rule, much more marked with yellow spots and 

 lines on the back and breast than the cocks, but not the redbreasted 

 variety which is marked on the back like a cock. There are other 

 varieties, but I think these are the ones most commonly met with. 

 From the beginning of the season until the end of September, 

 Grouse keep mostly in coveys, but after that the cocks seem to 

 leave, and go about singly or in pairs, and sometimes in threes. I 

 have often observed that where more than three birds were together 

 in October or November, and a brace shot out of them, these were 



