CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 297 



During the course of the day's shooting, whenever 

 I managed to get a brace, John Adam, my ghillie 

 would exclaim, "That's splendid!" In confidence, 

 he told me that he had been out with hotel sports- 

 men who fired (presumably meaning when there 

 were two or three together) six barrels at a Grouse, 

 and not a scratch ! five ditto at a hare, the result 

 being the same. The poor old English setter, when 

 he was unable to range any longer, would point his 

 nose up the mountain side, indicating, sure enough, 

 there were Grouse in that direction, but that he 

 was too dead beat ; however, by dint of a little 

 pushing and helping, I managed to get one or two 

 more shots out of him, then had to shut up. My 

 total bag was six brace of Grouse, four hares and a 

 Snipe — a nice little load for Adam, but he was only 

 too pleased to carry it, remarking that "one looked 

 such a fool when one had nothing to carry home." 

 Before many weeks were over I had a fair number 

 of delightful Grouse shoots, as a sporting gentleman. 

 Dr. M., was staying in the hotel, who had rented a 

 large shooting, and when anyone was required to 

 fill up a gap in his party, I was generally the lucky 

 individual to be invited. But you will say, "What has 

 all this to do with Grouse as a species " ? Nothing ; 

 it is only a sort of introduction to the place where 

 all three species of Grouse in this case were 

 obtained. 



The Red Grouse has the distinguishing character- 

 istic of being indigenous only to our islands, its 

 principal habitat, of course, being the Highlands of 



