i«99-] 37 



THE INTRODUCTION OF THE BLACK GROUSE 

 AND OF SOME OTHER BIRDS INTO IRELAND. 



BY G. E. H. BARRETT-HAMII/TON, B.A., F.Z.S. 



In a recent number of the Irish Naturalist (March, 1898, 

 pp. 69 to 76), I published some remarks on the introduction 

 of the Brown or English Hare into Ireland. It may now, 

 perhaps, be of interest for purposes of comparison to collect 

 and summarise some notes on the attempted introduction of 

 black game and of other birds into the country. It will, how- 

 ever, be well to first briefly indicate the grounds on which 

 are based the claims of this bird to be included in the fauna 

 of Ireland. 



The existence of black game as an indigenous species in 

 Ireland at any time has always been regarded as " at least 

 doubtful," the only evidence on the subject being that collected 

 by Thompson. 1 This consists solely of the statement of 

 Charles Smith 2 that "It is uncertain if we have not the 

 Urogallus mi?wr, Raii, viz., the heath-cock or grouse of 

 Willoughby, which I take to be the black game of England " : 

 and a statement by the same author in another place 3 that "this 

 species is frequent and needs no particular description," 

 is followed by a description of the bird and of its haunts, which 

 would be decisive enough, had it not been borrowed from the 

 work of Willoughby ! Templeton informed Thompson that 

 he had heard, on good authority, that " black game is 

 mentioned in some of the old leases of the county of Down," 

 while Pennant wrote in 1812 4 that " some have been shot in 

 Ireland, in the county of Sligo, where the breed was formerly 

 introduced out of Scotland, but I believe is at present 

 extirpated." Were the claim of the Black Grouse to in- 

 clusion in the list of birds which have formerly inhabited 

 Ireland to rest solely on the above statements, it would have 

 been indeed a shabby one, but the somewhat meagre evidence 

 of its former existence in Ireland which I have quoted above 



*Nat. Hist, of Ireland, vol. II., p. 34. 



a " History of Waterford " (1745), p. 336. 



8 " History of Cork " ,1750), vol. II., p. 329. 



*" British Zoology," 4th ed. (1812), vol. I., p. 353. 



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