RED GROUSE. it
years afterwards on Cobham Heath, nothing more was seen of them,
though every precaution had been taken to secure their stay. One
was killed in Norfolk many years since, near Downham, and one
in 1794 near "Wedhampton, in Wiltshire.
I n the wild state they abound, in certainly a remarkable degree
considering the vast numbers that are shot every year, wherever there
is sufficiently long heather, which affords them both home and food.
The nature of the latter imparts a peculiar bitter flavour to them,
but the taste for it is soon acquired, and there is h a r d l y a better
game bird. They prefer drier places to the low and swampy. In
t h e more remote parts of Scotland they are looked upon as of good
omen, and their morning crow is considered as a signal for the dark
spirits of the night to take their departure. They are capable of
being kept in a state of domestication, and in some instances have
been known to breed in captivity; one pair in the aviary of the
Dowager Duchess of P o r t l a n d , and another pair at Mr. Grierson's of
Iiathf'arnham, in the county of D u b l i n ; L o r d Stanley also had a pair
which laid ten eggs and b r o u g h t out eight young: they had had a
brood the year before he obtained them.
The Grouse frequents the higher, b u t not the highest, parts of the
heather-clad mountains, as likewise the hills and moors, and also is
found in the level country if interspersed with heath. Archibald
H e p b u r n , Esq. mentions in the 'Zoologist,' page 18G, his having in
one instance known a hen bird among bent-covered sand hills, six
miles from the nearest heath, and t h e r e she brought up a brood of
young. In winter they for the most part descend to lower ranges
from the higher ones. They generally go in pairs, but a single bird
is often seen; when the snow is on the ground they congregate in
flocks. In the s p r i n g the cock is pugnacious among his fellows, but
not so much so as many other k i n d r e d b i r d s ; at that time he is very
bold, and seems to scorn fear, as perched upon some old wall or
hillock he crows aloud or struts about, even though you pass quite
close.
I f disturbed from the nest, on which, however, she will often sit
till about to be trodden upon, the hen Grouse will shuffle through
the heath in an awkward and a p p a r e n t l y disabled manner, or My with
a low and undecided night to a little distance, and then run off
among it, and will not take wing till she has proceeded to a considerable
distance, in the endeavour to a l l u r e the i n t r u d e r to follow
h e r ; sometimes she even falls a sacrifice to her careful a n x i e t y : the
male does not sit. Both parents, when the young are hatched,
attend to their wants, and each will attempt to defend them against