278 



BIRDS. 



As many as forty brace have been shot in a day by one gun on 

 the tops around Loch nan Eun. Perhaps nowhere in Scotland are 

 Ptarmigan in such abundance as along the great continuous ranges 

 of the Grampians. Where the hills are isolated — as, for instance, in 

 the west of Sutherlandshire — and in many of the western hills, they 

 are by no means so plentiful. 



In the south-west they are scarcer, but still hold their own 

 without any great or permanent increase. This district approaches 

 the southern limit of their present distribution in Scotland, though 

 I have seen a single specimen which was said to have been obtained 

 on the central range of Stirlingshire, but this could only have been a 

 most unusual incident. I saw this bird in the country inn of Craw- 

 ford, in Lanarkshire, very many years ago, and have a note of it 

 somewhere in a commonplace-book. 



On Ben Morlaich (Vorlich), however, thirteen brace of Ptarmigan 

 were shot on Col. Stewart's ground in 1904. For many years 

 previously only small numbers have been obtained, but possibly that 

 may, in some measure, have been due to sportsmen going up so 

 seldom to the higher grounds which the birds frequent. 



Lagopus scoticus {Lath.). Red Grouse. 

 Abundant. Resident. Breeds. 



Old Gaelic name, Coilleach ruadh — i.e. the real old "Red 

 Grouse " of the original breed — now becoming rarer and rarer, with 

 the recent innumerable introductions of new blood and mixing up 

 of types. The "true" Red Grouse is still to be found in the Outer 

 Hebrides, and in some isolated localities in the west of the mainland. 

 I have one before me now, kindly procured for me by Mr. W. Mac- 

 gillivray in Barra (1903). 



Col. Drummond Hay relates the almost total disappearance of 

 Grouse from the Sidlaw Hills and the eastern portions of the Ochils 

 — "owing," he considers, "to excessive draining and the almost total 

 annihilation of heather by wholesale burning."^ A form of local 

 migration, however, takes place between the Grampians and the 

 Sidlaw Hills across Strathmore in winter — as indeed elsewhere, even 

 in autumn, and soon after the moors have been shot over earlier in 

 the season. 



At the time Don wrote, he spoke of the rapid decrease which was 

 evident then, and expressed his opinion that these birds might 

 become extinct unless better cared for by the proprietors ! 



1 Excessive draining is quite as bad as too little in my opinion. 



