APPENDIX G 117 



Stock At the beginning of the year the stock was rather over the average and 

 apparently healthy ; but as the spring advanced mortality was reported from forty-eight 

 centres, and of the birds examined a large proportion came from Badenoch and Strathnairn 

 though Caithness, Sutherland and, to a less extent, Ross were also severely affected. 1 The 

 breeding season was exceptionally good in Caithness ; further south and west it was not 

 good, there was a shortage of young birds which some reporters attributed to the effects 

 of frost on the eggs, but this explanation is not quite satisfactory; 2 in Inverness it was 

 better. On August 12th there was a fair average as regards numbers, but there still 

 remained some signs of disease. The bags were up to the average with one notable 

 bag of five thousand and ten brace on a high-lying moor in Inverness-shire. 8 The stock 

 at the end of the year was about an average in numbers and quite healthy. 



Remarks. An interesting season a fairly good breeding season was interrupted by 

 a sharp attack of disease ; this was probably due to the poor heather year of 1907 which 

 kept the birds short of food during the winter of 1907-1908. The outbreak was most 

 severe where the largest stocks had been left. The mortality might have assumed much 

 larger proportions but for the timely advent of fine weather and a luxuriant growth 

 of heather, consequently the stock was not seriously affected, and had quite regained 

 its health by the end of the year. 



The series of Eeports comes to an end with the year 1908, but we may be permitted 

 to glance at the map for 1909 4 to see whether the fine heather growth of 1908 has 

 had the beneficial effect upon the following season that might have been expected. 

 The result comes up to our expectations, for we find that, throughout the whole district 

 which in 1908 had been filled with piners and sickly birds, there has not been a single 

 case of disease except in those districts lying between Badenoch and Loch Ness where 

 we anticipated some mortality on account of the large overstock left from 1908. 



DISTRICT 1. SCOTLAND EAST (NORTHERN HALF). 



190625 Reports. 



Weather. For the early parts of the year the Reports vary. Near the coast the 

 weather was rather open, inland it was much colder with snow in Perthshire. In May 

 there was a very severe snowstorm in the north-east, particularly in the high ground 

 of Aberdeenshire. In Perthshire May was wet, cold, and frosty. The weather in the 

 shooting season was good, though in some places August was wet. After that the 

 weather was normal till Christmas, when there was a severe snowstorm. 



1 Vide map, 1908, Appendix I. 



- I'Ulc Appendix H. p. 183. 



* This bag is of special interest owing to the fact that this moor was under snow during the whole winter, 

 and had not a single bird on it till the month of May, when a breeding stock appeared simultaneously with 

 the disappearance of the snow. This stock was particularly healthy and prolific, probably owing to the heather 

 having remained uncontaminated for so long ; a much larger bag might have been killed. Tide Table (Moor No 7) 

 vol. i. p. 456. 



4 Vide map, 1909, Appendix I. 



