The reaping in my immediate neighbourhood disturbed coveys of partridges
that were many and large and singularly strong on the wing The extension of grain harvests and the comparative absence of sportsmen has increased the population of this most charming species, in which family affection has been developed as in no other bird. The nearest parallel in habit (as in target) is the red grouse, the most exclusively British of all birds. They have the 'covey habit and their feeding habits are not unlike. How has it come about that, as partridges have flourished, grouse have decreased? And the decrease on some Scottish moors (as in Cumberland) has amounted almost to extinction. The numbers have always 'varied greatly from year to year under the dictation of the weather and the special diseases of the species; but as far as I know there is no parallel in the annals for the existing degrangolads. There are many theories, some quite fantastical, about the cause of this disappearance, which has been rapidly progressive. The most prevailing is, I think, a change in the habits of gulls of several sorts. They come farther and farther inland and begin to find the land a richer larder than the unharvested sea or sea-shore. They have become birdnesters rather than scavengers, and the grouse are their chief victims. This may be true of the red grouse, but it does not account for the continued decrease of black grouse, that beautiful bird so much detested by afforesters.
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