74 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



As the day was clear, I was enabled to thoroughly 

 examine the plumage of the male Ptarmigan with the 

 glasses, and obtained a much finer specimen than the 

 one I had previously shot. 



The male and female, together with the nest and 

 eggs, were obtained on the hills between Loch Ean- 

 noch and the River Lyon, in the north-west of Perth- 

 shire, in the first week of June, 1867. 



EEC G-EOUSE. (AUTUMN.) 



Case 75. 



So much has already been written concerning the 

 habits and diseases of this popular game-bird, both by 

 naturalists and sportsmen, by those well acquainted 

 with the bird in its wild state, and also by others 

 whose experience appears to have been decidedly 

 limited, that there is little left to be said on the 

 subject. 



One thing alone is certain, viz. that we are as far 

 off as ever from discovering either the cause or a 

 remedy for that disease which seems to make 

 periodical ravages over the moors, attacking the birds 

 with equal severity on ranges where only a few 

 scattered packs are found, as on the most prolific 

 beats. 



Grouse would, in my humble opinion, be found to 

 keep their health better and longer if the moors were 

 more evenly shot over. 



In some parts, and frequently on the best- stocked 

 beats, there are only a few weeks' shooting in the 

 beginning of the season, when the ground could well 



