478 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



In districts where Grouse are not migratory, it is possible that the intro- 

 Poiicy duction of foreign birds may be beneficial, and this remark applies 

 Gnfuse not ^ n particular to moors which are cut off from other Grouse ground, 

 migratory. ^y arable land or by wide stretches of water. Examples of such 

 moors are the Lomond Hills in Fife, the islands and peninsulas on the west 

 isolated coast of Scotland, the Solway Moss in Dumfriesshire, and Cannock 

 Chase in Staffordshire. But the number of isolated moors is com- 

 paratively small. 



The success which has attended the introduction of new blood to the Island 

 of Rum is related in Messrs Harvie Brown and Buckley's " Fauna of Argyll 

 and the Inner Hebrides." 1 



" In this island, where there is a fair stock of native Grouse, their chances 

 of increase have been much assisted by the introduction of fresh blood both 

 from Meggernie in Perthshire, and from Yorkshire. About two hundred brace 

 have been introduced," and (writes Mr Bullough) " what is remarkable, they 

 assume the characteristics of native birds. One can always get within shot. 

 Is not this remarkable, seeing that in Yorkshire and Meggernie they are so 

 wild that one cannot get near them in winter? (in lit. 1889)." And in 

 a later letter it is said (November 1890): "The new blood has done 

 wonders for the Grouse. We could kill six hundred brace any season now, 

 and three years ago the place would with difficulty yield two hundred." 



Referring to Mr Bullough's remark as to these introduced Grouse acquiring 

 the habits of the West Country and insular birds of sitting closely throughout 

 the season (the authors) "believe this habit may have rapidly developed from 

 the fact of the birds having realised that Rum is surrounded by salt water, 

 and that a very long flight would be necessary if they desired to migrate ; and 

 last, not least, that the abundant heather in prime condition causes them to 

 feel satisfied with their abode. The desire therefore to migrate, or the 

 necessity to seek new pastures, does not exist." 



The same authors, in their later work on the Fauna of the Moray Basin, 2 

 refer to the danger that attends the undiscriminating introduction of new 

 stock to a moor from a district where widely different conditions may chance 

 to prevail. 



In Yorkshire where the Grouse is not so migratory as in Scotland a sufficient 



1 "A Vertebrate Fauna of Argyll and the Inner Hebrides." Edinburgh : David Douglas, 1892, pp. 155 et seq. 

 "A Vertebrate Fauna of the Moray Basin." Edinburgh : David Douglas, 1895, vol. ii. p. 154. 



