NOTES AND QUERIES. 69 



a gentleman signing himself "33," who asked whether Bagshot 

 Heath ever held naturally occurring or imported Ked Grouse (' Field,' 

 Jan. 14th, 1871, p. 27). The query was answered by two letters, the first 

 from a contributor signing himself " C. W. D." He says : — " I can 

 tell your correspondent ' 33 ' that the attempt has been more than once 

 unsuccessfully made to naturalize the red grouse both on the Surrey 

 Hills and on Dartmoor. I cannot recollect many of the particulars, 

 but within my memory a gentleman (I think, Col. Challoner) obtained 

 a number of grouse, and turned them out on Chobham Common. 

 They bred, and many strayed, and were killed on neighbouring heaths, 

 but they disappeared after two or three years." . . . The rest of this 

 gentleman's letter is immaterial. This note appeared in the ' Field,' 

 Jan. 21st, 1871, p. 38. Another correspondent on the same date, 

 signing himself " Effessea," says : — " An old tenant of mine, the late 

 Thos. Marter, of Durnford, Chertsey, told me that either the Duke of 

 York, when at Oatlands, or the Duke of Gloucester at Bagshot Park, 

 many years ago turned out the red grouse on Bagshot, Chobham, and 

 Frimley Heaths, but they did no good." . . . The rest of the letter 

 is immaterial. Both these accounts are somewhat vague, though I 

 have always thought that in mentioning Chobbam as a place where a 

 trial was made the second writer was intending to refer to what was 

 (unknown to him) Col. Challoner's attempt. The Ked Grouse was 

 also probably introduced in Surrey prior even to the Duke of 

 Gloucester's attempt in 1829, as Graves, in his ' British Ornithology ' 

 (1811-1821) mentions that it " has been turned out in several parts 

 of Surrey, Sussex, and Hants." I have never, however, been able to 

 discover any particulars of such earlier trials, if there really were any. 

 The classic authors refer only to the Duke's essay. A writer in the 

 ' Field,' July 28th, 1860, p. 84, signing himself " Argus," states, in the 

 course of a note on the Game Preservation Acts : — " I have proof of 

 the Bustard and Quail, formerly plentiful on the Surrey and Sussex 

 hills, but none there now ; nor would there be a partridge but for the 

 Game Act. Of the grouse turned out by Mr. Bray, of Shere, many 

 were shot by others as rarce aves in terra ; and so supposed without the 

 Game Act." Although I tried, I could never find any evidence that 

 Mr. Bray turned out the Red Grouse, nor for that matter a single 

 definite instance of the occurrence of the Bustard in Surrey ; and the 

 context of the letter being vague, and partly, at any rate, quite 

 inaccurate, I did not consider it advisable to make any reference to 

 this letter in my remarks on this species in my ' Birds of Surrey.' 

 Beyond these letters, and the remarks concerning " Red game " made 



