260 A HUNDRED YEARS 



from Islay 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 1916. In the seventies 

 (1872) 1,939 Grouse were shot, and 1,244 and 1,356 

 were killed in 1890 and 1891. 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 average about 80, but 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 2,600 feet included, the White Grouse has com- 

 pletely 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 if we see half a dozen Wild Ducks floating about 

 on the loch opposite our windows, where formerly there 

 used to be eighty to one hundred waiting for dusk in 

 order to start feeding on the stubbles and potato-fields. 

 Snipe, Golden Plover, Green Plover, Greenshank, Dunlin, 

 and Whimbrel are on the verge of extinction. I saw 

 only one Whimbrel in May, 1918, and they used to be 

 in flocks resting on our shores at the migration-time. 

 The Golden Plover has entirely changed its habits, and 

 has become migratory. A very few come in March to 

 breed, but instead of passing the winter in hundreds 



