AUG. GROUSE SHOOTINGS AND GROUSE. 275 



it can scarcely be expected that Englishmen will 

 continue paying at the rate they do for the right of 

 shooting over tracts of ground where the grouse are 

 becoming almost extinct, as is the case in several 

 places. Instead of sparing the birds where they are 

 attacked by this epidemic, I should be much more 

 inclined to shoot down every grouse in the infected 

 parts of the hills ; and I would continue to do this 

 as long as any appearance of the disease remained. 

 I would then give them a year or two of rest ac- 

 cording to the numbers and appearance of the birds. 

 This seems to me the most likely way to check 

 the destruction caused by what the keepers call the 

 " grouse disease." In some parts of the Highlands 

 there were scarcely any young birds seen in August, 

 and the old grouse were picked up in dozens, dead 

 on the heather. 



I observed one peculiarity in the habits of the 

 grouse in 1847, which was new to me. They were 

 collected in large flocks on the 12th of August in 

 the fields of oats in the elevated districts, which 

 were at that time perfectly unripe and green. In 

 every field near the moors there were large flocks of 

 the old birds busy in the midst of the corn ; but 

 they always took the precaution to leave some sen- 

 tries outside, who perched on a piece of rock or an 

 old wall, stood with their necks stretched to their 



