L agopus. Generic Characters,—Bill very short, clothed at the base with
feathers ; the upper mandible convex, and bent down-at the point; Nostrils
basal, lateral, partly closed by an. arched membrane,- and nearly hidden by the
small closely-set feathers at the base of the b'ilUi Eyebrows naked, as in the
genus Tetrao. Wings short, concave,-with the third and fourth "feathers the
longest. Tail generally square at the end. Tarsi arid toes completely feathered
; hind toe very short, and barely touching the ground with thé tip of the
nail. Nails long, and nearly straight.
T h is handsome species "ought to have been named B r i-
tannicus, rather than Scoticus, since -it is found in thé north
of England, in Wales, and in Ireland, as well as in Scotland,
in the Hebrides, and in the Orkneys, but. not in any part of
the world except the British Islands. The Red Grouse and
the Ptarmigan differ from the two speéies of Grouse already
described here, in pairing constantly,- in having the toes feathered
down to the roots- of the claws, 'in having also a
double moult, and, in this country at least,. neither, óf them
are seen to perch on trees; I,have therefore followed the
example of M. Vieillot and others in considering them so far
removed from the genus Tetrao as to' be entitiedite^a separate
generic distinction.
The Red Grouse are inhabitants of wild and extensive
heaths and moors. I t is well known to .be especially abundant
in Scotland ; and Mr. Macgillivray says ^thajs-the
sandy heaths of the eastern counties of the middle'division
appear to be less favourable to it than the more moi'st peaty
tracts of the western and northern districts, where the shrubs
on which it feeds attain a greater size. In „the central and
desolate regions of the Grampians it is equally abundant, as
on the moors of the Hebrides; and on the hilly ranges of the
south, the Pcntlands, the Lammermuir, and the mountains of
Peebles, Dumfries, and Selkirk, it is,still plentiful.’-'
The Red Grouse pair very early in spring, and the female
soon goes to n e s t: this is formed of the stems ogling and
grass, with occasionally a very few feathers, and these materials
are slightly arranged in a depression on thé ground,
under shelter of a tuft of heather. Daniel, in his Rural
Sports, says, that “ on the fth of March 1194, the game-
keeper of Mr. Lister (now Lord Ribblesdale) of Gisbume
Park, discovered on the manor of T witten, near Pendle Hillj
a brood -of Red Grouse, seemingly about ten days old, and
-which"could fly about ;5as' many:yards at a time ; this was an
-occurrence nófer known to have happened before so early in
the year.!’ ' T. H. 'Sandétson, -M^q: also ftgentf me word, in
reference-to early breedings that a farmer in burning ling off
Shapbf'|P| burnMever a nest containing 'fifteen eggs on the
twenty-fifth of March 1835. T h e :éggs are from eight to
fourteen or/fifteen in number, .||1 a reddish - white ground
Cllour, nearly; coTêréd »with blotches and spots; of umber
brown-: ih e length of the egg oïië inch nine lines, and one
inch three lines in breadth. The female sits very close ; and
Mr. Salmon mentions thaf one allowed him to take her off
her' "eggs. The young brood’leave-the nest soon after they
are freed from the shell, and .are attended to by both the
parent birds, under wfiidfse example they learn to feed on the
various ^vegetable substances - by which they are surrounded.
The extreme ends of the common ling and fine-leaved heather,
with th e léö^ës and berries of the black and red wörtlë,
and crowberry, and occasionally oats, when grown at the
moor side, are the portibtisi and kinds of food most frequently
found in their crops. :
The quantity of Red Grouse supplied,to.the London mark
e t’ only, could the number be ascertained, must be enormous,
when it is considëred^that from the second week in
August up to the present time, the end of the first week in
March, of every year, the supply is large and constant. The
females of the Red Grouse now to be seen in the shops of the
London poulterers, March 1th, 1840, have begun to assume
the plumage peculiar to the breeding-season. These have