184 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



Grey-hen brooded a few hours longer she would have 

 hatched off her entire clutch. Like the Capercaillie, 

 however, she seems to be content if she brings off only a 

 portion of her young, leaving the most backward to perish 

 in the shell. That she may, notwithstanding, be a good 

 mother to her young is borne out by an instance which is 

 reported from Ross-shire, where a Grey-hen, rather than 

 leave her brood, perished with her young in a big heather 

 fire. Though the young Black Grouse are able to run 

 actively about a few hours after they are hatched, they 

 do not reach maturity till the latter part of September, 

 so that the opening of black game shooting might be well 

 postponed for a month or even six weeks — from August 

 20th to September 30th. 



The wing power of the Black Grouse is marked. As 

 compared with representatives of the Red Grouse, the birds 

 move their wings more slowly and yet forge ahead more 

 rapidly. Their flight, too, is noticeably even, and there 

 is no rocking and swaying as in the case of the Grouse. 

 Down wind, when once they have got going, they are 

 capable of travelling at a tremendous speed. 



The food of the black game is varied. They feed 

 greedily on the young shoots of Scots pine and larch, and 

 are thus serious enemies to afforestation, especially to 

 pioneer afforestation. The land recently acquired by 

 the Government at Inverliever for afforestation purposes 

 is a case in point. Here the black game have caused such 

 injury to young plantations of Scots pine that the plant- 

 ing of these trees has had to be discontinued. The larch 

 plantations have also been greatly damaged, but the larch, 

 having more powers of recovery than the pine, is not 

 destroyed so easily. Black Grouse also feed on the buds 

 of the birch, and are partial to berries of various kinds, 

 notably the blaeberry {Vaccinium myrtillus). They eat 

 young heather and blaeberry shoots, also grass seeds, and 



