114 TRANSACTIONS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
mence with the family of ColunihidcB^ or Pigeons, of which the Ring¬ 
dove {Cobimba palumhus) is one of the commonest species. It is well 
known throughout the wooded districts of the country, and also over 
the whole of Europe from north to south. The Cashmere variety 
has a clay-coloured patch on the neck, but is otherwise identical 
with our bird. 
The Stock-dove (C. cenas) has during the last few years been 
procured in this district, and is one of the marked instances of the 
unaccountable appearance of certain species hitherto unknown. 
The Turtle-dove {Turtiir risorius) has. Col. Drummond Hay 
informs me, “ been shot at least twice in the district some few years 
ago, and on more than one occasion has been noticed by myself in 
the Carse of Cowrie.” It is common in all the southern countries 
of Europe, North Africa, and Southern Asia as far as India. 
Perdicid^e. —Our Common Partridge {Ferdix cinerea) has a wade 
European range, and Colonel Drummond Hay says it is abundant in 
Macedonia. 
The Common Quail {Cofurnix communis)^ which extends its 
migrations over almost the whole of Europe, Asia, and Africa, may 
also be claimed as a Perthshire bird, a specimen having been shot by 
Duncan Dewar at Remoney on Loch Tay side. 
The Ptarmigan {Lagopus mutus) is found on all the higher Perth¬ 
shire mountains, and members of the Society have had ample 
opportunities of seeing it on Ben Lawers, Ben Voirlich, and Ben 
More. It is also found on the Swiss Alps and Sierra Nevada in 
Spain, but its proper habitat is the north—Scandinavia, Russia, and 
Siberia, right round the Arctic circle to Greenland and Iceland. 
Our next species, the Red Grouse {Lagopus scoticus), essen¬ 
tially a British bird—is the only one peculiar to our islands, but so 
dour in his nature is he, that, though he consents to live as far as 
Derbyshire, south of that county he will not go, and all attempts to 
acclimatize him have failed, although the moorlands of Devonshire 
and Cornwall are, apparently, as well suited to his tastes as the 
heather of Scotland. 
The Capercailzie (Tetrao urogallus) is a good example of, not 
exactly acclimatization, but of what we may call re-introduction. 
Last century, mainly owing to the burning of the pine woods, it 
became extinct; but, thanks to the efforts of a Perthshire laird, the 
then Marquis of Breadalbane, it was re-introduced some fifty years 
ago—birds having been brought from Norway to Tay mouth—and 
now it is spreading all over the country. 
I wish I could say the same of the Black Grouse {Tetrao tetrix) 
which, for some unaccountable reason, is steadily decreasing in most 
parts, not only of Perthshire, but of Scotland. It ranges throughout 
