NOTES AND QUERIES. 345 



highly developed instinct than most other birds ; all have their normal time 

 of nesting, although there may be cases of abnormally late or early build- 

 ing ; but as to the Magpies or any other bird being able to fix dates exactly 

 to the day, it is unproved and incredible. — James Graves (Inisnag, Stony- 

 ford, Co. Kilkenny). 



I think it was about the year 1844 that the Duke of Argyll desired my 

 late father, his factor, to preserve game in the district of Kintyre, Argyll- 

 shire. If any steps in this direction had been taken by other proprietors, 

 they were very irregular. My memory goes back to about 1846 and 1848, 

 and at that time the Grouse of Kintyre " sat like stones" ; they might be 

 shot to dogs from the first to the last day of the season ; in fact it was 

 often difficult to get the birds up. With this preservation Grouse in- 

 creased enormously,— and therefore the food supply of the people,— to such 

 an extent that the late Sir John Cunningham and ray father shot, on one 

 12th of August, seventy-two brace of Grouse. Sir John was a very old 

 man, and insisted on loading his own gun, an old muzzle-loader. My 

 father never shot hard. Now I do not beheve any two men with two guns 

 and loaders could do this in the same district with all the improvements in 

 arms and dogs ; whilst I have heard my father say that seven brace was a 

 good bag when he was young, before game-preserving. Grouse yet sit 

 pretty well in Kintyre, and I believe this is the case because it was one of 

 the last districts to preserve and shoot ; but the birds are every year 

 becoming wilder, and now in the month of September it is useless to take 

 dogs on the hill, and for two years we, like others, have had to drive them. 

 I account for this by an alteration in instinct, and I am as sure as any one 

 can be, from observation and the opinion of competent persons, that it is 

 progressive instinct in successive generations. Formerly the great enemies 

 of the Grouse were Ravens, that took their eggs and young birds ; Foxes, 

 Polecats or Marten Cats, and Wild Cats, that took them at night on the 

 ground ; and hawks, that took them on the wing during the day. When 

 man stepped in and altered the balance of Nature, the 



Bird that up and flew away, 

 He lived to breed another day. 



No hawk was there to knock him down. He found from experience that 

 flying away before man and his dog came near gave him safety ; and liis 

 children that inherited the wit or instinct or power of turning heather into 

 nerve-force or intelligent thought — or whatever the straw-splitters like to 

 call it — lived ; whilst his brother, that inherited the qualities which kept 

 him hiding in the heather, was shot when forced up. I had this summer 

 ample corroboration of this theory. About eight years ago I was shooting 

 in the island of Rum ; the Grouse were not preserved and were extremely 

 tame, so tame in September and Octoher that I had to run after them to 

 ZOOLOGIST.— AUGUST, 1884. 2 D 



