62 
INDISCRIMINATE SLAUGHTER. 
maintenance. It is not a shy bird, except in districts where 
it has been much molested, and there it becomes most 
wary and difficult of approach, lying perdu among the dark 
brown moss and heath, with which the colour of its plu- 
mage harmonises well : it is not easily discovered, except 
by the nose of the well-trained dog. 
In the breeding season, which is early in the year, some- 
times even in January, the coloin-s of both cock and hen 
become brighter and more distinct. Unlike the Black 
Grouse, this species is strictly monogamous ; it forms a 
rude nest of straw, dried grass, or leaves, in some rocky or 
sandy hollow, under a tuft of heather, or low bush, and lays 
from ten to fourteen eggs, of a dingy white colour, spotted 
with brown. The young are exposed to the attacks of 
many enemies, and are often destroyed, although the old 
birds defend them with great courage. The Hooded Crow 
appears to be one of the greatest depredators of the Grouse's 
nest : * Compared with this crow,' says Knox, * the eagle, 
the buzzard, and even the peregrine falcon herself, are 
almost innocent, and at least honourable enemies ; nay, 
even the fox is harmless when measured by the same stan- 
dard.' A good bait for this mischievous bird is stated by 
the same authority to be a trap artfully set in the mock 
nest of a Grouse, and baited with the egg of a gull, or any 
other bird, or the shell, emptied of its contents, and filled 
with melted fat and nux vomica. We should recommend 
strychnine as the more powerful and certain poison, and, 
from the small quantity necessary to be used, less likely to 
be detected by the wary depredator, whether furred or 
feathered. 
It is to be regi^etted that the proper preservation of 
Grouse involves the destruction of many wild creatures, 
whose habits are highly interesting to the naturalist, if not 
to the sportsman. To give some idea of the indiscriminate 
slaughter practised by Highland game preservers, we may 
state, on the authority of Knox, that on the celebrated 
Glengary estate, between the Whitsundays of 1837 and 
1840, there were destroyed the following numbers of what 
the keepers call Wermin': — 11 foxes; 198 wild-cats; 
246 marten-cats; 106 pole-cats; 301 stoats and weazels ^ 
