channel which separates the islands of Hoy and Pomona, Orkneys. The fishermen told me this distance, at the point where I was sailing, was quite four miles across, and the birds must have come at least another mile on the Pomona side from the point where they left the moor.'

Mr. J. A. Harvie Brown states that in December 1879 a pack of grouse was seen flying south over the Moray Firth, making for the Banff coast. Their journey must have been very considerable. It is not easy, in fact, to say how far the grouse is migratory, but that individual birds wander far and wide in autumn and winter there can be no doubt. The Rev. M. A. Mathew records that a solitary red grouse was shot by Mr. C. Edwards on the Mendips, near Wrington, Somerset, in September 1885, and this, he suggests, must have crossed over the Bristol Channel, migrating from Breconshire. Very likely the bird was pursued by a peregrine, and the chase carried it far out of its usual latitude. Similarly, the red grouse included in Mr. Miller Christy's 'Birds of Essex' had no doubt strayed from Sandringham, or from some other centre of introduction in Eastern England In 1879 Mr. W. Stamper observed a pair of grouse in a turnip field on his farm near Oswaldkirk, Yorks, early in February. The birds had strayed at least ten miles

from the nearest grouse moor. Severe weather often affects the interests of the grouse bred on high ground. Thus, Mr. James Carter writes that in January 1886 the neighbourhood of Masham, Yorkshire, was covered to a considerable depth with snow, which, owing to sudden changes from thaw to frost, with frequent fresh falls of snow, became a very solid mass. The depth above the heather on the moors was considerably more than a foot, and large drifts formed on a very extensive scale. 'The grouse suffered severely, being quite unable to penetrate the frozen mass for food, and in consequence they left the moors for the lower cultivated land to an extent never previously observed. The nearest point of moor to Masham is three miles distant, but the open moors are considerably farther away. Walking near this ground, great packs of grouse would sweep overhead and pass right down the valley over the town. A field of turnips was swarming with the starving birds, which vainly attempted, with numerous partridges, to scratch down. for food. The grouse were perched on the fences, feeding on the berries like so many fieldfares, and on several occasions they alighted amongst the branches of trees. They were feeding in the hedgerows about Durton House and close to the outskirts of the town, and even on the heaps of manure close to buildings

where persons were working all day. As far as one could see they had abandoned the moors, and were feeding miles away in the cultivated districts on anything they could get in the way of food. A large farmer, whose land lies three miles still farther away from their usual haunts, states that immense flocks of grouse were feeding in his turnip fields. Gangs of men were being employed to clear away the snow from patches of heather, but their efforts did very little towards providing feeding ground for the vast number of starving birds.' The Editor of the 'Zoologist' appended to the communication just cited a note that, 'About the time mentioned there was an extraordinary exodus of grouse from the moors in the neighbourhood of Ilkley, in consequence of the very inclement weather. The birds in many cases left the moorland altogether, and large packs were seen in the fields about Arthington and Weedon. . . . During a severe winter some years ago we remember to have heard that in Caithness the grouse were all down on the seashore, and hardly a bird was to be found on the moors.' A large amount of similar evidence might be cited if it could serve any useful purpose, but the foregoing will suffice to show that not only do single pairs of grouse stray occasionally on to arable farms,

1 Zoologist, 1886, p. 107.

but that under certain conditions the majority of English grouse desert their favourite moors for a short period in order to satisfy the pangs of hunger. The question whether grouse are liable to migrate in the early spring, when food is apparently plentiful, suggests a more difficult problem. There are good sportsmen, at any rate, and careful field naturalists who incline to believe that the grouse, like its distant relative Pallas's sand grouse, is occasionally seized by paroxysms of migratory fever, under the influence of which the birds travel for many miles from their home moor. But positive proof that this is so is still wanting, and the question can only be settled by means of marked birds.

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CHAPTER III

THE GROUSE AND ITS ENEMIES

THE most important factor in grouse preserving is a judicious treatment of the heather which clothes the slopes of our northern hills. Of course many other points have to be considered. If we allow the moors to become overstocked, we increase the susceptibility of the game to the various forms of disease which have been so cleverly exploited by Dr. Klein and other scientific workers. But the vital question in the management of a grouse moor is the maintenance of a proper food supply. and can face wet seasons, not indeed with impunity, yet without seriously losing ground. They are well accustomed to meet the vicissitudes of our stormy and changeable climate. In droughty seasons they vary their diet with an additional share of blaeberries. Does the snow fall swiftly and thickly on the brae ?— the grouse have long since learnt full well by experience of hard times how to find the gullies where the

Grouse are hardy fowl,