62 



a harsh croak, and on looking up the Eaven was 

 right above my head, only unfortunately out of shot. 



As the day was clear I was able to thoroughly 

 examine the plumage of the male Ptarmigan with 

 the glasses and obtain 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 

 Kannoch and the Kiver Lyon in the north-west of 

 Perthshire in the first week of June 1867. 

 See " Rough Notes " Vol. II., Plate 10. 



RED GROUSE. (AUTUMN). 

 Case 75. 



So much has already been written concerning 

 the habits and diseases of this popular game-bird, 

 by both 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 week's shooting 

 in the beginning of the season, when the ground 

 could well stand two or three guns shooting 

 judiciously over it from the 12th of August till the 

 10th of December. 



It has frequently been put forward that the 

 killing down of vermin destroys the balance of 



