274 



BIRDS. 



almost if not quite without exception, the soil and its seeds are the 

 direct reason for their unusual numbers. Many introductions have 

 been attempted to places in the west and to some islands, which have 

 utterly failed, and have been put down as entirely due to the great 

 rainfall and sodden soil and want of agriculture ; but I think if the 

 causes be more carefully gone into it will be found as I say : the 

 causes are a combination of these along with much of other local 

 influences. Much of this would be worthy of study before such 

 similar attempts are made. See under Grouse on Tents Muir, where, 

 if these matters had not been intelligently attended to, I certainly 

 think the introduction of Grouse to these sandhills would not have 

 been so perfect a success as it has turned out to be. 



Of large " bags " of Partridges many instances could of course be 

 given, and there is no doubt that the sloping and sunny sides of the 

 upper Tay valley holds many advantages for the species, and large 

 bags are made there, while the similar grounds in the east are almost 

 equally as productive — if, indeed, the latter do not surpass the former. 

 I have seen good bags made in the neighbourhood of Aberfeldy — in 

 1879, the same year in which I saw the Cuckoo in October — and I 

 have heard of really wonderful bags made in the same district, as 

 also along the shores of Loch Tummel. To give quite a modest 

 example of this, I quote a letter I had from Col. Drummond Hay, 

 who extracted from his old game-books the following entries : 

 "In 1855, self and friends, on 14th Sept., 40 birds; in 1856 (two 

 guns), on 1st Oct. 14, on 14th Oct. 27 ; in 1857 (two guns), on 

 22nd Sept. 62 birds, and on the following day 41 birds ; or 51 J brace 

 in the two days — a thing," says Col. Drummond Hay, "I could no 

 more expect to do here, i.e. in the Carse of Gowrie, than I could fly." 

 The above bags were made on Loch Tummel side. The date of his 

 letter to me was 3rd November 1885 ; and even more extensive 

 operations could be quoted. 



That curious variety of Partridge, which struck the late Sir 

 William Jardine as so extraordinary that he named it Perdix montana^ 

 occurs at times with strange persistency in some districts of the north- 

 east of Forfar and Kincardine, whence I have had several specimens 

 at one time. At Glenbervie, for instance, General Shaw obtained 

 them on more than one occasion, and it has been occasionally shot 

 also in Dee, while I have heard of others in several other parts of 

 the same area (see Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, 1876, p. 77). 



That other variety in plumage also in which the "horse-shoe" 

 is white, and the plumage generally paler, occurs in the same 



