210 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



snow makes its appearance, and storm follows storm 

 till the brown heather disappears beneath a universal 

 dazzling mantle. Under these conditions, the blackgame 

 (though many of them for a time still cling to their chosen 

 hillocks above with surprising tenacity) are soon to be 

 found in the lower grounds and wooded valleys where 

 dozens of them may be seen perched like rooks on the 

 bare birches and hawthorns. Here they feed on haws and 

 budding shoots of birch and alder. They also procure a 

 certain amount of heather in places where the wind has 

 drifted the snow from the weather-slopes of the hill, or 

 where sheep have been feeding. Blackgame endure long 

 snowstorms with great hardihood, showing little or no 

 falling off in condition. In December, 1882, however, 

 a friend told me he found many greyhens, dead and 

 dying, on his farm, even in the stackyards. The crops 

 of these were full, and death was ascribed to their 

 inability to secure the necessary supplies of sand and 

 gravel which are required to promote digestion. 



There is a general belief among gamekeepers that 

 young greyhens do not breed in their first spring, and not, 

 I have even heard it stated, until their third spring. This, 

 of course, is a matter incapable of direct proof; but, 

 personally, I dismiss all such ideas as absolutely untenable. 

 So precarious are the lives of game-birds that, under such 

 a handicap, they could not long maintain the struggle for 

 existence. My own observation leads me unhesitatingly to 

 say that greyhens do breed in their first year, or at least 

 as many of them as have the opportunity. The number 

 of greyhens without broods is explained (1) by the fact 

 of the species being polygamous, and (2) by their being 

 too old — not by their being too young. 



On most moors greyhens are spared— in some cases 



