Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/99

Rh a gentleman signing himself "33," who asked whether Bagshot Heath ever held naturally occurring or imported Red Grouse ('Field,' Jan. 14th, 1871, p. 27). The query was answered by two letters, the first from a contributor signing himself "C.W.D." He says:—"I can tell your correspondent '33' that the attempt has been more than once unsuccessfully made to naturalize the red grouse both on the Surrey Hills and on Dartmoor. I cannot recollect many of the particulars, but within my memory a gentleman (I think, Col. Challoner) obtained a number of grouse, and turned them out on Chobham Common. They bred, and many strayed, and were killed on neighbouring heaths, but they disappeared after two or three years." ... The rest of this gentleman's letter is immaterial. This note appeared in the 'Field,' Jan. 21st, 1871, p. 38. Another correspondent on the same date, signing himself "Effessea," says:—"An old tenant of mine, the late Thos. Marter, of Durnford, Chertsey, told me that either the Duke of York, when at Oatlands, or the Duke of Gloucester at Bagshot Park, many years ago turned out the red grouse on Bagshot, Chobham, and Frimley Heaths, but they did no good." ... The rest of the letter is immaterial. Both these accounts are somewhat vague, though I have always thought that in mentioning Chobbam as a place where a trial was made the second writer was intending to refer to what was (unknown to him) Col. Challoner's attempt. The Red Grouse was also probably introduced in Surrey prior even to the Duke of Gloucester's attempt in 1829, as Graves, in his 'British Ornithology' (1811-1821) mentions that it "has been turned out in several parts of Surrey, Sussex, and Hants." I have never, however, been able to discover any particulars of such earlier trials, if there really were any. The classic authors refer only to the Duke's essay. A writer in the 'Field,' July 28th, 1860, p. 84, signing himself "Argus," states, in the course of a note on the Game Preservation Acts:—"I have proof of the Bustard and Quail, formerly plentiful on the Surrey and Sussex hills, but none there now; nor would there be a partridge but for the Game Act. Of the grouse turned out by Mr. Bray, of Shere, many were shot by others as raræ aves in terrâ; and so supposed without the Game Act." Although I tried, I could never find any evidence that Mr. Bray turned out the Red Grouse, nor for that matter a single definite instance of the occurrence of the Bustard in Surrey; and the context of the letter being vague, and partly, at any rate, quite inaccurate, I did not consider it advisable to make any reference to this letter in my remarks on this species in my 'Birds of Surrey.' Beyond these letters, and the remarks concerning "Red game" made