BIRDS. 



279 



In the south-west Mr. Godfrey designates Grouse as not 

 abundant around the west end of Loch Earn, but this note refers to 

 the summer or breeding season ; and I have in the shooting season 

 found Edinchip moors in good condition with quite a good stock 

 of Grouse. Such conditions, of course, change with the seasons. 



Quite the most interesting history connected with this species is 

 the perfectly successful introduction of Grouse to the hollows of the 

 great stretch of sandhills upon the Tents Muir in the north-east 

 corner of Fife by Mr. John Fowlis — long time gamekeeper there, and 

 whose portrait I am glad to be able to reproduce. My thanks are 

 due to my friend Mr. W. Berry for obtaining this for me, as well 

 as much other kind assistance in my work. 



I cannot add anything to the excellent account given of this 

 remarkable clothing of bare sandhills, digging of pits to obtain 

 water, and final and successful introduction of the birds, by Mr. W. 

 Berry, as contained in the Annals Scot. Nat. Hist, for 1894, 

 pp. 197-203, and which was also pre\iously referred to in the Zool. 

 for February 1894. I will, however, here quote his description of 

 the range of Tents Muir, which will tell others, should sportsmen 

 desire to introduce these birds to similar kind of ground, how they 

 may well do so. 



Mr. W. Berry relates as follows : " The Tents Muir is a large 

 tract of barren moorland, flat as the sea which borders it along its 

 entire length. It extends from the Firth of Tay on the north to the 

 estuary of the Eden near Leuchars in the south ; its length being 

 approximately five, and its breadth two miles. The elevation above 

 sea-level of the whole of this area is quite inconsiderable — perhaps 

 eight or ten feet, or even less; but it is broken up and partially 

 sheltered from the sweep of the winds by lines or chains of sand- 

 hills, which rise to the height of thirty or forty feet, and trend, 

 speaking generally, in the direction from east to west; a similar 

 chain forms a continuous rampart along the seashore. The soil, if 

 such it can be called, is simply blown sand, only anchored in its 

 present position by the vegetation which has somehow established 

 itself upon the surface ; indeed, a strong gale — particularly a nor'- 

 easter such as that which carried destruction on so vast a scale to 

 the woods and trees of oiu* eastern counties on the 17th November of 

 last year — sometimes makes a material alteration in the appearance 

 and size of the sandhills, blowing tons of sand, along with the bent 

 grass — root and stem — which formerly bound it together, to form a 

 new and sterile area on what was before good heather ground. 



