150 NATURAL HISTORY AND 



that the first day I tried it in Mull I bagged 10 J 

 brace of grouse (every bird I shot at), leaving off 

 without a miss, and the very first brace of bagged 

 birds were a fair right-and-left chance. 



Although a number have died this year of dis- 

 ease, hares are still plentiful enough both on 

 Kames and North Bute. We can generally each 

 day kill as many as are convenient to carry, and 

 rabbits are again on the increase, after being 

 nearly exterminated by hired warreners a few 

 years since. Alpine hares have been introduced 

 from Argyllshire, but I have never yet moved 

 one, although my watcher saw a couple at differ- 

 ent times last whiter, after they had donned the 

 snow-white fur. I don't regret their scarcity, for 

 on my last shooting they swarmed into a perfect 

 nuisance. You could only shoot there in comfort 

 by always giving them the cut direct when they 

 rose, and most certainly by refusing to honour 

 them with a gun salute. The pointers or setters 

 soon learned to follow my example, and were as 

 callous to the antics and vagaries of these hares as 

 if they had been sheep. When the grouse began 

 to fight shy of our advances, we were fain to scrape 



