152 NATURAL HISTORY AND 



observer. I may also ask, why should not the 

 mild air of Bute have prevented the two snowy 

 specimens my watcher discovered from assuming 

 their unsullied attire ? White, in his ' Selborne,' 

 records his satisfaction at the addition of the 

 Alpine hare to the scanty animal catalogue of the 

 British fauna, and would no doubt have protested 

 against such summary swamping of it in the line- 

 age of the Emerald Isle. 



The same theory is broached with regard to our 

 truly national red grouse and the willow grouse of 

 Norway. Now, although there are strong points 

 of resemblance both in the flight and summer 

 plumage of the Norse bird to ours, there is this 

 (to me) insuperable objection viz., that no red 

 grouse can exist without heather; and it also tells 

 against the curtailers of species that the Scotch 

 mountains should be cold enough to whiten 

 [Irish ('?)] hares and ptarmigan, and yet be too 

 mild to perform the same office for willow grouse. 



That hill partridges are distinct from lowland 

 ones, which many sportsmen naturalists assert, 

 cannot be so strongly supported; and I have always 

 thought that the wilder feeding-ground of the 



