¢ 
57 [ Vol. xxxix. 
greatly benefitted through this protection. The Great 
Skua colony on Foula is also flourishing. 
Mr. Mgape-Watpo also made the following remarks on 
the scarcity of Grouse in Scotland in 1918:—A friend who 
owns a number of excellent moors in Perthshire writes : 
“T have not a shadow of doubt we are short of birds, old 
and young, owing to migration. After a marvellous April 
we had some severe late frosts—16° to 20°—and after an 
early spring everything on the tops was abnormally forward, 
and no doubt the strong early broods migrated to the tops 
and survived, the later broods perishing owing to the frost- 
belt. Early in August I was on the tops in a Scotch mist 
and heard pack after pack going away, but could not see 
them. The low and middle beats held almost nothing. We 
have now—December 12th—as many grouse on the ground 
as last season.” 
From the south of Scotland a friend writes: ‘“ Almost all 
the nests and broods of Grouse were destroyed by extensive 
heather-burning in April and May, apparently done with 
the intention of destroying the shootings—this rendered 
possible by the absence of keepers.” 
Mr. Tatsor-Ponsonsy said that in Perthshire, on the 
Persey Moor, Bridge of Cally, the birds were very scarce 
in 1918. The old birds had disappeared in an extraordinary 
way. A good majority of the birds shot were young birds: 
so it was evident that the old birds had disappeared. From 
what he was told by local residents, there seemed to be no 
doubt that a great many birds were shot on the oat-stooks 
during the previous autumn—thus seriously depleting the 
stock. Also he had no doubt that the absence of keepers 
and the increase of vermin had also added to the scarcity of 
birds. A farmer told him that underneath a Carrion-Crow’s 
nest he had counted 200 Grouse egg-shells. Stoats were also 
very numerous on the Moor and all round. 
In Sutherlandshire, on the Tressady Moors, the farmers 
