THE BLACK GROUSE AND THE PARTRIDGE. 151 



distances whicli few would believe. Two years 

 ill succession a large number were reared in 

 the Lewes from imported eggs. They were 

 constantly seen in the country all through the 

 winter ; but in pairing time each year the whole 

 of them left the island, and the nearest land is 

 forty miles off. 



In the Highlands they give capital sport 

 with dogs in the winter, where they are cared 

 for and protected. They are extinct on many 

 estates. Every patch of cultivation will be fre- 

 quented by at least a pair, and these will rear 

 large coveys. But every cultivated field is 

 somewhere near a house — possibly a lonely 

 shepherd's house, — and one or two cats are kept 

 in each house. These as regularly kill one or 

 both of every pair of partridges which try to 

 breed on these fields, as the falcons break up 

 every pair of grouse. By stopping the depre- 

 dations of these beasts we got up a nice head of 

 partridges in every direction. On the last five 

 days of January we once bagged ninety, all 



