I30 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



or red granite, or, better still, deep-red serpentine, veined 

 and mottled with black, an exceedingly hard stone which 

 takes a fine polish. And in voice and character the bird 

 is what he looks, hard and brave, both as wooer and 

 fighter. Even near the end of May when many hens 

 are incubating — I stumble on a dozen nests a day — he is 

 wooing and fighting all the time, and the fights are not 

 mere shows like those of the ruff, a pretty little feathered 

 French duellist, and other quarrelsome species that fight 

 often without hurting one another. The red grouse that 

 looks like a stone hurls himself like a stone against his 

 adversary, and whether he breaks bones or not he makes 

 the polished feathers fly In clouds. Yet in his wooing 

 this stone-like bird sometimes attains to grace of 

 motion. That Is when, carried away by his passion, 

 he mounts Into the air, and If there is any wind to help 

 him rises easily to a good height and performs In de- 

 scending a love flight resembling that of the cushat and 

 turtle-dove. But in his vocal performances there is no 

 grace or beauty, only power. You are astonished at the 

 sounds he emits when he bursts out very suddenly 

 rattling and drumming — rrrrrr-rub-a-dub-dub ; or you 

 may liken It to a cachinnatory sound as if a gritstone 

 rock standing among the heather had suddenly burst out 

 laughing. Then he changes his tone to a more human 

 sound like a raven's croak prolonged, which breaks up 

 into shorter sounds at the end — ah-ha! come here, come 

 back, go back, go back, quack, quack, or quick, quick, 

 which Is probably what he really means. 



From the grouse and his rude noises I must now go 



