SPORT IN BUTE. 217 



no Alpine hare would live before foxhounds half the time 

 these Irish ones constantly do. 



I have in my collection Alpine hares in summer and winter 

 dress, together with an Irish one, and the difference is appa- 

 rent to the most careless observer. I may also ask, why 

 should not the mild air of Bute have prevented the two snowy 

 specimens my watcher discovered from assuming their un- 

 sullied attire ? White, in his ' Selborne,' records his satis- 

 faction at the addition of the Alpine hare to the scanty animal 

 catalogue of the British fauna, and would no doubt have 

 protested against such summary swamping of it in the lineage 

 of the Emerald Isle. 



The same theory is broached with regard to our truly 

 national red grouse and the willow grouse of Norway. Now, 

 although there are strong points of resemblance both in the 

 flight and summer plumage of the Norse bird to ours, there 

 is this (to me) insuperable objection viz., that no red grouse 

 can exist without heather ; and it also tells against the cur- 

 tailers of species that the Scotch mountains should be cold 

 enough to whiten [Irish (?)] hares and ptarmigan, and yet be 

 too mild to perform the same office for willow grouse. 



That hill partridges are distinct from lowland ones, which 

 many sportsmen-naturalists assert, cannot be so strongly sup- 

 ported ; but I have always thought that the wilder feeding- 

 ground of the moor-edge bird has only dwarfed the old English 

 partridge, and somewhat darkened its feathers. 



Mire-snipes are pretty generally distributed over the moor- 

 lands and waste ground of Bute, and a good sprinkling of 

 jacks are constant to certain reedy plashes all through the 

 winter. When killed off, their vacancies are generally not 

 long in being supplied. 1 The boast of the island, however, is 



1 An old Argyllshire sportsman assured me lately that no retriever would 

 carry a jack-snipe on account of its nauseous taste, of which the dog had the 

 full benefit from being able to close its lips on the unsavoury morsel. Never 

 having perceived this disgust to "jacks" in my retriever, I gave him a fair trial 

 the first opportunity, which occurred on my next shooting-day. I dropped the 



