Red Grouse.
Bonasa scotica, Briss. Orn., tom. i. p. 199, tab. 22. fig. 1.
Tetrao lagopus, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. ii. p. 750, var. y.
scoticus, Lath. Ind. Ora., vol. ii. p. 641.
saliceti, var., Temm. Man. d’Orn., 1815, p. 296.
saliceti scoticus, Schleg. Rev. Crit. des Ois. d’Eur., p. 76.
Lagopus scoticus, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Indig. Mamm. and Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 27.
Oreias scotica, Kaup, Naturi. Syst., p. 177.
T h e r e is, perhaps, no one o f our British birds with which so many pleasing associations are connected as
the Red Grouse, nor one which affords greater interest to the ornithologist, the sportsman, and the lover
o f nature,—to the ornithologist from the circumstance of its being peculiar to our islands, to the sportsman
from the unrivalled enjoyment with which it furnishes him during the latter part of the summer and the
early autumnal months, and to the lover of nature from its principal home being among the wildest
mountain-districts o f the northern parts o f Britain, to which annually resort our princes, nobles, and
legislators for the reinvigoration of their health after the fatigues of the Parliamentary session and the
jading pleasures of the London season. As affording sport it is second to none ; and its flesh is unequalled
in flavour by that o f any other member o f its family. Its remarkable flight is viewed with pleasure, and
its wild cry is enchanting to the ear of all who have an opportunity of treading th e ’springy heather.
“ The crow o f the Grouse,” says St. John, in his ‘ Tour in Sutherland/ “ is as inseparable in my mind
from the mountains of Scotland as the song o f the Water-Ouzel is from its birch-covered glens or the
spring-call o f the Peewit from its marshy meadows.” Numerous as are the birds which frequent the
British Islands, the Grouse is the only one we can truly call our own ; for it never migrates nor ever
oversteps its natural boundary; it is always a t home, bringing forth its brood among charming beds of
blossoming heather. Southward o f Wales it is not found; but northward from this point it ranges over
most o f the counties of England and Scotland, the Orkneys, the Western Islands, and the sister kingdom of
Ireland.
The vexed question of the identity o f Lagopus scoticus with L . albus I shall not enter upon here. To
sink the former specific term for the latter would, I know, be distasteful to most o f my read ers; and as
it is a matter which still remains undecided, I shall give our bird the benefit of the doubt. Lagopus albus
possesses many characteristics by which it differs from the R ed G rouse: thus it exchanges its rich brown dress
o f summer for one o f pure white in win ter; but, unlike many other animals which alter in colour from
the rigour o f climate, the tail always remains black, and appears, indeed, o f a deeper tint during that season.
Those who consider the two birds identical believe that our humid climate and almost peculiar vegetation
may have gradually effected a change in the coloration o f our Grouse—a change which, during the lapse of
ageSj has become permanent. If this be the correct theory (and I must admit that I think it probable
that it is), then the range o f the species would be a vast one, extending more or less throughout the northern
portions o f both the Old and New World a t about the same degree of latitude as in Europe. To test
their unity, I paid a visit to Norway, to form my own opinion on the subject; and I must say I was much
struck with the similarity o f the two birds in their habits and economy, and in the crowing call o f the male.
On this head, Mr. Oscar Dickson, of Gothenburg, wrote, in ‘ Land and Water ’ for September 26th, 1868:—
“ Some leading Swedish naturalists maintain that there is no other difference between the Scotch and Norwegian
Willow-grouse than what may be accounted for by the influence o f climate. They say that the call and also
the droppings are just the same, and that there is no dissimilarity in the skeletons of the two—that most
Willow-grouse have white pens in the wings, but not all, which they can prove by specimens a t the Stockholm
museum. When I point to the different habits o f the birds—such as the Scotch Grouse not being found near
trees, and that they do not turn white in winter—they account for this by the influence o f climate; and when
I ask why the Willow-Grouse are not met with in the middle and south p a rt o f Sweden when they, in Scotland
and England, are found in lower degrees than Copenhagen (which is about the same latitude as Edinburgh),
they say that the Grouse prefer the colder parts, and therefore, also, they appear in greatest numbers in the
north o f Scotland/’
Some o f our writers have affirmed that the Red Grouse never perch on tre e s ; but this assertion must
not be taken literally: the fact is they frequently do so,'either for the sake o f changing their food or to escape