CLASSIFICATION AND LIFE HISTORY 31 



Birds " it is stated that Grouse have been observed flying from 

 Thurso to Hoy, a distance of over 11 miles. 1 The following 

 instances are vouched for by the Committee's own corre- 

 spondents. A gentleman in Banffshire, writing in January 

 1907, says : " Packs of Grouse are continually flying across 

 the valley during stormy weather, some 5 or 6 miles between 

 moors ; " while in Cumnock, in Ayrshire, there are " two ranges 

 of hills divided by a valley about 2 miles wide, with a moss 

 lying in between. In the pairing season Grouse often fly at 

 a considerable height over the valley between the hills." Even 

 during a Grouse drive a pack has been observed to leave the 

 hill where it had been flushed, and not to rest until it had 

 reached another moor 6 miles distant. Longer flights are 

 more difficult to authenticate ; Harvie Brown states that : 

 " in the severe winter of 1878-1879, a pack of Grouse was seen 

 crossing the Moray Firth in December, making for the Banff 

 coast, as we were informed at the time by Sheriff Mackenzie 

 of Tain. Much snow was lying at the time in East Sutherland 

 and Caithness " ; 2 and Macpherson (loc. cit.) says also that 

 " The Rev. M. A. Mathew records that a solitary Red Grouse 

 was shot by Mr C. Edwards on the Mendips near Wrington, 

 Somerset, in September 1885, and this he suggests must have 

 crossed over the Bristol Channel, migrating from Brecon- 

 shire." 3 Other records in " Birds of Essex," are quoted in 

 Macpherson. 4 



We are indebted to the same writer for the following informa- 

 tion upon the general habits of migration among Grouse. 



" Their principal time for shifting about is in the evening 

 after feeding, and again after ' becking ' in the morning. But 

 they are particularly restless on many moors about the end of 

 September and in October, especially the female birds, and the 



1 Millais, " Natural History of British Game Birds," p. 54. London : Longmans, 

 Green & Co., 1909. 



z Harvie Brown & Buckley's "Vertebrate Fauna of the Moray Basin," vol. ii. 

 p. 152. Edinburgh : David Douglas, 1895. 



3 Fur and Feather Series, "The Grouse," p. 37. 



4 Ibid., p. 39. 



