SIZE AND COLOUR OF SCOTCH GROUSE 247 



frequent for shelter from the mid-day sun, or from the 

 inclemency of the weather. 



The Scotch grouse vary very considerably in size. 

 The Perthshire birds are small in comparison with 

 those of Argyleshire. The Western Highland bird is 

 much larger and of a fine rich red colour, those in 

 Perthshire being darker. Keepers affirm very 

 decidedly that where there are comparatively few 

 birds they are heavier and richer in colour. In other 

 words, the deficiency in quantity is atoned for by the 

 quality, and I have noticed this to be the case every- 

 where. The birds on the West Coast are invariably 

 fine, because the wet weather which is there so preva- 

 lent prevents their ever being too plentiful. In the 

 lower districts, where the birds take to the corn-fields 

 early in the season, they are much lighter in colour. 

 These lower counties of Lanark, Renfrew, and those 

 on the border, supply most of the poached grouse with 

 which the English markets are supplied. Most of them 

 are snared by means of horse-hair or fine wire nooses, and 

 these latter engines of destruction prove very fatal in 

 the corn-helds, and hundreds of birds are annually so 

 trapped and sent to market. I have seen these snares, 

 not by the dozen, but by the half-hundred, set round 

 the edges of corn-fields and heather in Inverness-shire. 

 A friend of mine, a clergyman, told me that a farmer, 

 one of his own parishioners, and whom he knew well, 

 passed him on the road to the market-town driving a 

 hill-pony and cart. The cart was loaded with sacks 

 of potatoes, and it being the end of November, my 

 friend was somewhat surprised to see potatoes being 

 taken in to market so late in the year, all the other 

 crofters having sold their potatoes, as he well knew, 



