RED GROUSE. 
7 
with at any distance from the stacks about the farms or the outbuildings round the shooting-lodges. 
ith reference to these pests, the Innerwick keeper wrote to me as follows : — “ I do not remember to 
have ever seen rats on our Grouse-moors ; they do not go so high. Last spring wo found a dead rat 
in a fox-cairn high up on one of our hills ; but that is no proof it was obtained on the moors, as it is 
most probable the fox came down and captured his prey about some of the steadings.” I ascertained by 
personal observations in England that martens will carry off the young of game birds. In the Ilighlands 
their lange aj^pears limited to the beech- and jiine-Avoods, and I have seldom seen their tracks at any 
distance from the timber Avhen snoAv was on the ground. Several trapped by gamekeepers and foresters 
have been examined; but all, I believe, were captured in the plantations, wdiere there could have been 
little chance that Grouse had suffered from their predatory habits. Stoats and weasels, considering their 
size, are the most merciless and bloodthirsty little wretches it is possible to imagine ; none who have 
watched then- performances wliile in pursuit of prey can doubt that they exercise a peculiar fascination 
over their victims. I have repeatedly come across hen Grouse lying dead on the moors, evidently dragged 
from their nests and killed liy these destructive creatures, the wounds on their neeks and the marks of 
the blood that had been sucked plainly indicating the cause of death. After satisfying their appetite in 
the first instance, it is obvious that they return at times and in some manner convey the dead carcasses 
to their dens, tlie immense quantities of bones collected in the cairns to which they resort affordin'^ 
conclusive evidence as to their misdeeds. Some years back, while crossing the hills to the north of the 
} on 111 Perthshire, the keepers pointed out a large cavity among some bloeks of stone to which stoats had 
frequently resorted. Although the men stated that during the past season the place had been deserted 
owing to the destruction of its former occupants, I felt inclined to make an investigation of the old 
quarters As both picks and spades were on the ponies (we were on a trapping-expedition at the time), 
1 ook but a few minutes to excavate sufficiently to allow the removal of the largest slab of rock behind 
r “ of consklemWe weight, but at last gave way 
efo e the efforts of half a doseu sturdy IligI, landers. The fall of earth from above that aeeompanied its 
plaeement unfortunately obliterated all signs of the markings t the remains, however, of the bones of 
buds (many evidently belonging to Grouse, both old and young), as well as those of rabbits that were 
dug out would probably have tilled a bushel measure. I now and then came across smaller eol c t on 
— - - - » —nity fm. eva^:: 
distrfots “fo ‘“°tl w'", cousMerably, in many 
stret bed ao ,1 w °f telegraph-wires 
June 87, i“°“", C-sfell in Cumberland earir;! 
in Sutherland, there was little ditricubv ■ . / telegraph-wires; and again further north,, 
the same causd. “ ascertaining the heavy losses sustained by this species from 
animosity of certain writer^; ^rdTianT years appear to have stirred up the 
headed the lists. The most venomous attack on a spo^lLnln 
however, contained in MacGillivray’s ‘ British Birds ’ vol i u isq n i ■ ^ i"’ 
no apology for quoting a portion The disversi;n which ‘‘ groule-shootli" Wn,tw 
