NATURAL ENEMIES OF THE GROUSE. 119 



of Mr. St. John, to be deprecated by every 

 sportsman ; as from the extraordinary fecundity 

 of these animals they become so numerous as to 

 be "a perfect plague to grouse dogs." The 

 kestrel, the hobby and the merlin to say nothing 

 of the harmless habits of the first-named are 

 of themselves too diminutive to deserve the 

 hostility of the Highland keeper. The white 

 owl (strix flammed) and the wood or tawny owl 

 (syrnium aluco) are comparatively rare in Scotland, 

 and fortunately for themselves, play an inferior 

 part in the drama ; while those autumnal visitors, 

 the short-eared owl (otus brachyotos) and the 

 rough-legged buzzard (buteo lagopus), who leave 

 this island in the spring, and are therefore ab- 

 sentees during the breeding season, are shot and 

 trapped, during their brief sojourn, without 

 mercy; although the latter alone deserves to be 

 classed, and even then with reservation, among 

 the natural enemies of the grouse. 



With a greater show of justice, the fox, the 

 cat, and the various members of the weasel 

 family, are proscribed as outlaws ; yet the lover 

 of the British fauna cannot fail to regret the 

 rapid decrease which the excessive preservation 

 of the grouse is entailing among several of our 

 native quadrupeds. The pine marten and the 

 wild cat have already disappeared from the south, 



