THE GROUSE IN HEALTH 

 AND IN DISEASE 



PART I.— THE NORMAL GROUSE 



CHAPTER I 



THE SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF THE GROUSE 



By A. H. Evans 



The name Grouse, in the form " Grows," has been traced back by Salusbury 

 Brereton to the reign of Henry VIH. (1531), and in its present form to 1603. 

 But, since it first occurs in an ordinance for the regulation of the Royal 

 Household at Eltham in Kent, it ought in all probability to be applied the name 

 to the Black Grouse which may then have inhabited that county, 

 though no actual record has yet been discovered. Further particulars are given 

 by Professor Newton in his " Dictionary of Birds." ^ The appellation has, however, 

 by universal consent been long transferred to the Red Grouse, the Moorfowl of 

 our forefathers , and when standing alone would never now be understood otherwise. 

 This species is the most characteristic bird of the Scottish moorlands, 

 including the Hebrides and the Orkneys, and is plentiful thence to the northern 

 counties of England ; in few places is it more numerous than on the Digt,.iiuu. 

 moors of South Yorkshire and Derbyshire in the vicinity of Sheffield ; *'°"- 

 while to the west it not only occurs in decreasing numbers to Shropshire, but 

 is found in Wales as far south as Glamorganshire, and in Ireland in most 

 suitable localities. Attempts have been made to acclimatise it to the north 

 and south of its proper range ; but the few pairs turned down in Acciimati- 

 Shetland between 1858 and 1883, with a greater number in 1901, ^^"°°- 

 have never thriven, while their descendants are apparently extinct, and the 

 same may be said of those introduced into Surrey, Norfolk, and elsewhere, with 



' A. Newton, "Dictionary of Birds," p. 388. London : A. and C. Black, 1893-1896. 

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