128 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXVIII. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



Disease amongst Grouse; diflSculty of assigning its cause — 

 Supply of Grouse to Poulterers — Netting game, legal and 

 illegal — Disguised Poachers — Game-Laws — Preserves — 

 Criminality of Poachers — Epidemics amongst Hares, &c. — 

 Black Game — Hybrids — Woodpigeons — Geese — Sen- 

 tinels. 



It is difficult, I ought perhaps to say impossible, 

 to understand the cause and origin of what the 

 Highland keepers call " the disease " amongst 

 grouse. For the last few years it has in several 

 districts almost swept away these birds ; so much 

 so that scarcely a young bird is to be found, and 

 very few old ones. Some persons assign one thing 

 as the cause of this and some another, all plausible, 

 but all on investigation equally unsatisfactory. 

 One keeper will tell you that the heather " is too 

 short;" another, that "it is too long;" one, that the 

 hills have been too wet during the spring ; and 

 another, that the weather was too dry : in fact, 

 the most experienced persons are all at fault. For 

 my own part I conceive that it is some epidemic 

 which cuts off the birds indiscriminately in wet and 

 dry, cold and hot weather, without reference to 



