522 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



This extract shows that it was a risky proceeding to burn 

 heather during the nesting period, although it is improbable 

 that the enactment was made in the interest of the Grouse. 



I have been favoured by Lord de L'Isle and Dudley with 

 a copy of a " Bill of Particulars," of a sale of the Ancient 

 Baronry, Manor, or Lordship of Stokesley, m March 1779 ; 

 from which it appears that amongst the lands offered for sale 

 were " Two very extensive moors or commons called Stokesley 

 Moor and Basedale Moor, containing together 3,129 acres, 

 represented to afford the finest and most abundant Grouse 

 shooting in the North of England. This privilege was formerly 

 let to a gentleman at £56 a year." 



The rights of shooting on the famous moor of Bowes, 

 now at a very high rent, were in the " fifties " let by ticket 

 at £$ per gun. Year by year the rents of Grouse moors in 

 Yorkshire are increasing, and, owing to the improved value 

 of the shooting rights, and the greater attention paid to the 

 management of the vast expanses of breezy moorland, the 

 Grouse is far more numerous than of yore, and there is no 

 likelihood of it losing its position as the typical bird of 

 Yorkshire. 



Considering the wide distribution of this bird in the count}-, 

 the folk-lore is very meagre. In the Craven dialect the 

 crowing of the ]\Ioor Cock is termed " Bragging " ; and 

 Gormire on the Hambleton Hills is supposed to derive its 

 etymology from the Gor or Moor Cock. 



The local names are : — Red-game, Gor-cock, Moorcock 

 (Will. " Orn." 1678), whilst Tunstall termed it the Red Cock 

 (MS. 1780). It is generally called Moor-game or Moor-bird, 

 and in one case where there is a variation in the colour and size 

 of the hens these are locally termed Moss Hens. Moor-poot 

 or Moor-pout is also applied to the young bird, and in the 

 Craven district this term is metaphorically an " ignorant 

 clown " or " one bred at Moorside." 



