© f H )
The Red Game,, or More-Cock. Lagopus altera, Mas.-
Numb. XXHI, XXIV.
T"1 H IS Bird is half as big again as the common Partridge; (being confiderably like-
it in Shape) its Feet and Legs are feathered down to the Claws as in the black
Game and others of this Species; its Bill is Ihort and blackiih; its Noftrils elegantly
fpeckled with white and black Feathers; it hath a fcarlet-colour’d naked Skin above-
each Eye in Form of a Crefcent in place of Eye-brows, which in the Cock are much-
broader, and have a Border of loofe Fleih like a Fringe or Cfefl, at the Bafis of the
lower Chap; on each Side is a pretty large white Spot, but not fo in the Female.
Moreover the Male differs from the Female in being much redder, the whole Body
having no other Mixture than black and red with tranfverfe Lines .a-crofs each. Feathery
the red exceeding the black, except on the Back and the Top of the Shoulders,, where
the black Spots are broader.
The Female is of a paler red, and variegated with whitifh Spots all over the Body:
and Wings; the exterior Webs of the 3d and 4th prime Feathers of which are white,,
it having all other Charafterifticks belonging to the Cock, the Sex only, excepted.
In each Wing are 24 Feathers all dufky, except the exterior Edges of thofe next the
Body, which are red ; the outmoft Feathers of the Wing are ihorter than the fecond j
the third the longeft of all; the interior baftard Wing is made of white Feathers; the
Feathers alfo on the under fide o f the Wings next to the Flags are white; the Breaft and
Belly are almoft alike, as to the Colour of the Plumage, with the Back in both Sexes.
The Tail is more than a handful long, not forked, confifting of 16 Feathers, all black
except the middlemoft, which are variegated with red and black; the Fleih is very
tender, efpecially in the younger ones, tho’ not io white as a Hen s ; they are frequent in
the high Mountains of Derbyjhire, Yorkshire, Wejimoreland and Wales-, it lays 6, 7, or 8
Eggs, being feldom more than one Inch and three Quarters long, (harp at one End and
all fpeckled with dark red Specks or Points, only towards the fharper End are one or two
Beds void of Spots ; the younger are invefted with Belly-worms, which fometimes hang:
down, as they fly, a Foot long from behind.
It delights to abide in the higheft Tops of the higheft Mountains, and with us never
comes down into the Plains, and very feldom into the. Sides of the Mountains; the Fleih
of thefe Birds do fuddenly corrupt, and therefore the Fowlers as foon as ever they take
them exenterate them and fluff the Cavity of the Belly with Ling ; the Tops of which,
are their natural Food when alive.