198 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE 



however, that an analogous process has been at 

 work modifying the grouse, yet such is the case. 

 The real old red grouse of the Highlands, thei 

 bird which the old Highlanders called Coilleach 

 ruadh, or red cock, is now rather rare, and, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Harvie -Brown, may only be found 

 in the Outer Hebrides and in some isolated 

 localities in the west of the mainland, the pre- 

 dominant bird of the day being, in his opinion, 

 the result of innumerable introductions of new 

 blood and mixing up of types. Other influences, 

 such as change of living conditions, the breeding of 

 a far larger stock than the land would naturally 

 carry, the destruction of natural enemies, and the 

 substitution for their selective work of the 

 systematic but non-selective operations of the 

 sportsman, have possibly modified the grouse to 

 such an extent that if Fergus Vich Ian Vhor were 

 to revisit his hunting-grounds he would hardly 

 recognize it. 



When all this has been said, however, the grouse 

 remains the grouse and Britain's distinctive bird. 

 Every other bird in our avi -fauna (perhaps we 

 should except the St. Kilda wren) may be found 

 on the European continent, but the grouse is our 

 own. The real old Coilleach ruadh was not a 

 distinct species, but merely a strain distinct enough 

 to form a recognizable variety ; and the man in 

 the butts, or the man who prefers to follow the 

 Igame behind a brace of good dogs, may bring his 

 bird down with a feeling that his quarry is sub- 

 stantially the same as that which his ancestor, the 

 ancient Briton, in a different way hunted for 

 the pot. 



