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Whilst in the Highlands of Scotland my brother was shown a projecting crag covered with grass and moss, in the side of a corrie, upon which a young gamekeeper told him a male Buzzard deposited food for his sitting mate, whose nest was situated some forty or fifty feet away. It had then lying upon it one young rabbit, not quite half-grown, and fragments of others, but so far as he could see no birds of any kind. As it was in a fairly accessible position he descended to it, and made a photograph, which is here reproduced.
Although I do not think the common Buzzard is regarded as a particularly dangerous bird by game preservers, it is trapped in the following manner: A young rabbit is killed, and after being partly flayed is tied down in a spring or small stream. This done, a little knoll is built close beside it, and a trap, carefully hidden by moss, placed on the top. No sooner has the unsuspecting bird espied the tempting meal than it either alights on the knoll or drags the carrion thereon to devour it, and is caught by one or both legs, as shown in our illustration above, which is from a photograph taken in the Hebrides.
Buzzard's larder
The Red Grouse is the only bird which we can claim as purely indigenous to the British Isles. Incredible sums are now spent every year for the privilege of rearing and shooting the bird; and so exhilarating is the sport that I have known well-to-do farmers tramp thirty or forty miles a day as beaters for three shillings and sixpence and their luncheon, and declare that sooner than miss the fun they would rather pay to be allowed to go driving "Moorcocks."
Young grouse
The illustration below shows a Grouse's nest in a bed of rushes - a situation in which I have never seen or heard of one before. It was found by my brother in Westmorland last year. Grouse sit very closely upon their nests. I once knew a clumsy shepherd tread upon one, and the poor bird left all her tail feathers firmly pinned betwixt the edge of her nest and his iron-plated boot toe.
A good gamekeeper having a Grouse moor under his charge takes pains to he on the best of terms with shepherds, as a clutch of eggs is easily trodden on by accident or otherwise, and the driving of a flock of sheep at a brisk pace across a few acres of heather in May is likely to produce a good deal of disappointment in August.
Grouse's nest in rushes
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