BIRD-ASSOCIATIONS IN SCOTLAND 17 
gamekeeper—a subtle factor which I am not prepared to 
estimate. 
On the grassy and bracken-covered detritus which slopes 
from the cliff-bases and the steeper hill-sides, other birds thus 
far absent appear for the first time, or take a more dominant 
position in the fauna. On the opener grassy area we get 
such birds as Curlew and Meadow-pipit ; and in the bracken- 
region, with its sprinkling or skirting of birch and oak, we 
find the Black Grouse, Woodcock, and locally the Nightjar. 
In the bottom of the glen exists a broader or narrower strip 
of alluvial soil, which, when not cultivated, forms usually 
a soft or marshy stretch with a vegetation of rough grasses, 
rushes, and probably some dwarf willows or other shrubs. 
Here the Skylark, Snipe and Redshank have their centre 
of distribution. 
MOORLAND ASSOCIATIONS. 
I have placed this association in a separate category from 
the Alpine and Sub-alpine, since it is less characteristic of the 
steeper hill-sides than of the wide plateaux, which may exist 
at all levels down almost to that of the sea. Heather is 
of course the chief vegetative constituent, though not in all 
classes of moor. Ground dominated by heather is divided 
by botanists into, amongst others, heath and Calluna-moor, 
according to the character of the sub-soil, the heather being 
found chiefly in the drier eastern and central parts of the 
country, while the true moor, which possesses a much deeper 
under-layer of peat, is more typical of localities with a 
relatively large rainfall. The Red Grouse is characteristic 
of both, but is perhaps more plentiful on the Calluna-moor. 
In passing, it should be noted that this Grouse is not 
confined to heather, being abundant in the Vaccinium-moors 
of Yorkshire and elsewhere. Amongst Passerines which are 
included in the fauna of the heather-moor are Ring-ouzel, 
Wheatear, Whinchat, Stonechat, Meadow-pipit, Twite; but 
several of these reach their most dominant position in associa- 
tions of somewhat different type. Other moorland species 
are: Merlin, Teal, Golden-plover and Dunlin. In moor- 
lands of a wetter type, where the heather-dominance is 
109 AND IIO Cc 
