THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE GROUSE 27 



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"; 1 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 Breconshire." * Other records in "Birds of Essex," are 

 quoted in Macpherson. s 



We are indebted to the same writer for the following information 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 first strong gale brings many of them off the hilltops, 

 looking for more sheltered and genial situations. 



" Birds of both sexes will fly a long distance to a patch of black heather 

 during a prevalence of severe frost and heavy snow, but the hens shift about 

 in packs more irregularly than their male companions, and they are less partial 

 to the high grounds, but seek the lower portions of the moor, and such as are 

 most screened from the east winds. Grouse netters say that in fine open 

 weather the birds fly very long distances when shifting about the hills." 4 



Observations upon the wandering habits of individual Grouse have also been 

 made where some peculiarity in the bird has made identification possible. An 

 Ayrshire gamekeeper has told the Committee's field observer of a pure white 

 Grouse which was seen and freely shot at on Glencairn and Upper Cree. It 

 then disappeared, and was seen and shot at many times on a shooting 12 

 miles away. It was eventually killed by a gamekeeper 9 miles away from 

 either of these moors, and now forms a stuffed specimen in a case in his 

 cotUge. All this happened in one season. 



The question of the annual movements and migrations of Grouse are 

 important as a guide to the best methods to be adopted for the regulation of 



1 Harvie Brown & Buckley's " Vertebrate Fauna of the Moray Basin " vol. ii. p. 152. Edinburgh : David 

 Douglas, 1895. 



* Fur aud Feather Series, "The Grouse," p. 37. 3 Ibid., p. 39. 



4 Ibid., p. 77. 



