280 



BIRDS. 



Herein lies a danger to which inland moors are not, of course, liable ; 

 and in order to minimise the effect of such a calamity we are obliged 

 to leave a broad fringe of strong unburnt heather along our northern 

 boundary, so that, on the one hand, the plant itself may not so 

 readily be smothered, and, on the other, the sand may, by the 

 thicker vegetation, be more speedily arrested in its march of de- 

 struction. " 



Mr. Berry then defines the area, as divided between three pro- 

 prietors, etc., but the original home of the introduced Grouse is the 

 northern or "Shanwell" moor, of which Mr. Berry is the shooting 

 tenant. He goes into some details of the different forms of vegeta- 

 tion, and speaks of the two streams of running water which cross 

 this northern portion, which, however, are liable to " run dry " in hot 

 summers. Water, however, can be found at any season, and at 

 almost any spot on the moor, by digging a few feet into the sand. 

 He then details the occasional presence of stray Grouse which 

 appeared upon the moor prior to the introduction, "but it was not 

 till the year 1876 that the late Admiral Maitland Dougall of Scots- 

 craig decided to try an experimental introduction of the bird." 

 After certain preliminaries, John Fowlis, the gamekeeper, "succeeded 

 in capturing a pair of well-grown Grouse " on the moor of Outh, the 

 property of Mr. Lawrence Dalgleish, and these were "duly set at 

 liberty. In the following August — on the 8th, to be exact — eight 

 more birds were procured from the same moor, and it soon became 

 evident that the experiment was going to meet with a considerable 

 measure of success." At this stage a number of men were "engaged 

 to dig up turfs covered with the good heather . . . and place it where 

 bell-heather or grass predominated, and this transplanted heather 

 continues to flourish and is spreading, etc. Water-holes were also 

 dug wherever the water-supply was deficient, or not easily accessible ; 

 and in the following season the reward of this forethought was 

 reaped, for the birds not only bred, but successfully brought their 

 young to maturity. Of these birds, on 26th August 1878, the 

 Admiral shot five — the firstfruits of Tents Muir." 



An average bag of some twenty brace was obtained in the season 

 for each of the following seven years — say from 1880 to 1886 

 inclusive — fourteen brace having been shot on one day (on 7th 

 August 1886) by two guns. 



The further history is all interesting, viz. the first inclination of 

 the birds to pack and become unapproachable ; the correction of this 

 by instituting a regular system of driving, when Mr. Berry became 



