RED GROUSE. . 20I 



[Genus — Ortyx.] 



[Ortyx virgin'ianus — Virginian Colin.] 



Introduced from North America, but not established. 



Family— TETRAONID^. 



Genus— LAGOPUS. 



[Lagopus mutus — Ptarmigan.] 



Common on the highest mountains of Scotland. 



LAGOPUS SCOTICUS— Red Grouse. 



The squire, in scorn, ^vill fly the house 

 For better game, and look for Grouse. 



Swift. 



The Moorcock springs, on whirring winga, 

 Amang the blooming heather. 



BoBNa. 



Until the Heath-cock shrilly crew, 

 And morning dawn'd on Benvenue. 



Scott— Lady of the Lake. 



This handsome bird is a true British species. It has existed 

 here from time immemorial, and is not to be found elsewhere. 

 Ornithologists call the Red Grouse the British representative of the 

 Willow Grouse, Lagopus albus^ which has so wide a range in the 

 old and new world continents ; and regard it as, probably, nothing 

 more than an isolated descendant from this bird, varied by the food, 

 and climatic peculiarities of the British Isles. The Red Grouse 

 differs from the Willow Grouse, in its summer and winter plumage, 

 in its call note, and in some of its habits. It is the only one of its 

 tribe, for example, which does not turn white in winter, which 

 science would explain, by saying, that it lost the power of doing so, 

 when the necessity for the change passed away. Be this as it may, 

 the result is admitted to be a distinct species, peculiar to Britain. 



The Red Grouse is to be found on all the large tracts of waste 

 land, the wild open moors of the British Isles, where the ling 



