188 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



ptarmigan croak like frogs ; its beak and claws also are 

 remarkably thick and strong - , while in ptarmigan those 

 organs are feeble and weak. We like to regard the red 

 grouse as exclusively British ; so he is, but we must recog- 

 nise that the grandfather of his stock survives in Spits- 

 bergen, while the intermediate generation is represented by 

 the well-known willow-grouse of Northern Europe and 

 Asia. 



The latter, moreover, extends right across North 

 America to the Pacific. The willow-grouse, in fact, com- 

 pletely encircle the Pole wherever land exists within their 

 range of latitude ; while our British red grouse is merely a 

 detached insular form, and the southernmost of all. In 

 Newfoundland, I noticed, among the many singular 

 perversions of current names that distinguish our 

 oldest British colony, the willow-grouse are known as 

 " partridges." 



The true grouse can thus claim to rank as the hardiest 

 bird-form on earth ; since it alone retains that primeval 

 position in the farthest north that was formerly, as else- 

 where suggested, common to all. 



Hardly will September have commenced than the 

 wagtails (pied and grey) become conspicuous. One may 

 see both species daily on the green lawn beneath one's 

 window, darting hither and thither on the close-cut grass, 

 nimble as mice in their chase of tiny insects and aphides, 

 or springing for a yard on wing after some wilder spirit 

 that has essayed to escape by flight. Another favourite 

 resort of theirs is the rough pasture-land where cattle feed. 

 Wagtails attend regularly on these, catching the insects 

 that are disturbed as the animals move about, grazing. 

 The agile birds run among the very hoofs of the beasts, 

 and even fly up beneath them, deftly picking off fly or gnat 



