The Red Grouse 47 
killed. Coming southwards we do not find a first-class area until we enter the district 
between Glenferness in the east and Loch Ruthven on the west. Between these two 
points are situated Cawdor, 1 Moy, and Meallmore, 2 three of the best moors in Great 
Britain. I have at one time or another visited most of the Highland moors in Scotland, 
and I should say that Moy is most suited to Grouse of them all, while Cawdor in Nairn- 
shire and (for their size) Loch Kennard, Drumour, and Grandtully (Perthshire) come a 
very good second. 
In Perthshire a great area is devoted to Grouse, and excellent moors are found on both 
sides of Loch Tay. On both sides of the Upper Tay are many heavily stocked moors, 
notably Grandtully, Loch Kennard, Drumour, where 4000 brace have often been killed 
in a season in Mr. Barclay Field's tenancy, and many others too numerous to mention. 
There are many fine moors for Grouse in Forfar, Kincardine, and Aberdeen, Wigtown, 
Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, and Dumfriesshire, where bags of over 200 brace of 
Grouse have been killed in one day. One of the prettiest as well as the most productive 
moors I have seen is Doune (Perthshire), belonging to the Earl of Moray. It is seldom 
shot, but swarms with Grouse. There are a few good moors for Grouse in Argyll, notably 
about Inveraray, but most of the ground is given up to deer or to sheep-farming, where 
heather does not flourish. 
In the Lews, Harris, North and South Uist, and Barray, Grouse are still fairly 
numerous on the low grounds, but too tame to furnish good sport. I think they are slowly 
dying out in these islands. In Skye they are also found in fair numbers, and in the 
islands of Rum, Mull, Arran, and Gigha. In the Mull of Kintyre they are abundant. 
In the Orkneys, their chief home is the island of Hoy, where the vegetation of 
the hills is in all respects like the Mainland. On Pomona they occur in small numbers 
on lowlands near the coasts. They are also common in Rousay and Eday, and a few 
are found in Burray, Flotta, Fara, Risa Little, and Cava. To Sanday and Westray 
they are occasional visitors. I have often seen them crossing from Hoy to Pomona, 
a distance of four miles, and they have been observed flying from Thurso to Hoy, a 
distance of over eleven miles. I have not noticed that Orkney Grouse are larger 
than those of the Mainland. 
Grouse was introduced to Shetland, at the head of Weisdale Voe, in 1858, and a 
few pairs bred until 1872, when they became extinct. There were a few imported in 
1882 and 1883 into Yell, and a few pairs probably still exist there. A recent introduction 
of six hundred birds was made to the Mainland by Colonel Bruce of Sumburgh in 1901. 
Two were seen at Balta Sound in Unst on 16th November 1902. {British Birds, 
September 1908.) 
Habits. — The species is found in all parts of the islands, where ling and heather 
flourish, from sea-level up to the rocky tops, where those plants grow. Given a good 
supply of heather {erica), which can easily be kept in good condition by judicious 
burning, Grouse will thrive on this low-growing shrub alone ; but there are wide areas 
both in Yorkshire, Scotland, and Ireland where the birds subsist almost entirely on 
certain grass and rush seeds. Heather of the age of three and four years is their 
1 In 1906, 4000 brace were killed on Cawdor. 
2 In two days over goo brace were killed at Meallmore in 1909. 
