60 The Natural History of British Game Birds 
too, large numbers are taken at night with the silk net, when the birds are roosting. 
The method is simplicity itself. An old and steady pointer with a small lantern at its 
neck ranges as usual. When a "point" is obtained the poachers can, by watching the 
dog's eyes and noting the position of its head, see very clearly when the covey is close 
at hand. Two men then run the silk net over the heather in front, and if the first 
"cast" is not successful the second usually is. My uncle, Mr. George Gray, rented 
a small moor near Alyth, from which over 100 brace of Grouse were thus taken in a 
few days. By a singular circumstance he received one morning a cheque for over £40, 
made payable to George Gray, by a game dealer in Leadenhall Market. Inquiry re- 
sulted in the arrest of the local poacher, whose name was also George Gray, and the 
punishment of the dishonest dealer. All kinds of vermin prey on Grouse, their eggs 
and young. Even an otter and a stoat have been known to catch and kill adult Grouse. 
In the mating season hoodie-crows make fearful havoc amongst the eggs, whilst pere- 
grines, eagles, and buzzards kill large numbers of the half-grown poults. The hill-fox, 
too, is most destructive to hen Grouse when they are sitting. 
Varieties of Red Grouse are not uncommon. The most frequent is that of birds 
showing white primaries and white .patches on the chest. Another common variety is 
seen in birds marbled all over with white, with the hooped black marks (and some- 
times the buff points) still visible. Yellow and buff varieties are also common, 1 with 
the faint markings of the darker parts still showing. Of the foregoing I have seen so 
many examples that it is not necessary to remark upon their particulars of capture. 
White varieties are rare, and of perfect albinoes I have only seen one or two. I 
possess a steel-grey variety from Perthshire, and have one of the rare " blue-grey " 
varieties from the same county. Only about three examples of the last named are known. 
I have also a curious specimen, buff all over, with curious black longitudinal marking 
down the feathers, quite unlike any other Grouse I have seen. It also has a pure white 
chest. The bird was killed at Loch Kennard in Perthshire. It is doubtful if the jet- 
black phase of the Red Grouse must be considered an excessive example of the black 
form, or a complete melanotic variety. Under any circumstances it is very rare. I 
possess two examples from Nairnshire, and there is a fair specimen in the Perth Museum 
from Perthshire. 
On December 12, 1908, Mr. Austin Mackenzie described in the Field an abnormal 
Grouse, which he suggested might be a hybrid between a Grouse and a pheasant. As 
no such cross was known, I asked Mr. Mackenzie to send me the bird for inspection. 
This he kindly did. It proved to be the most interesting variety of a Red Grouse 
I have seen, and one of which I believed, at the time of receipt, there is no other 
counterpart in British collections. Most naturalists and sportsmen have seen examples 
of the chestnut variety of the common partridge, when the chestnut of the breast seems 
to suffuse in patches the entire plumage, except the parts of the head and under parts. 
These abnormal birds were known at first as a distinct species. The Grouse in ques- 
tion is a similar variety ; the red-chestnut of the front of the neck covers the head, neck, 
and breast, back, scapulars, and tail coverts. The wing coverts are chestnut with black 
edges, and the flanks, belly, red with black edges. On the nape are a few black and 
1 I have recently seen no fewer than six examples of the buff variety in Longshaw Lodge, Derbyshire. 
