GROUSE 389 



but in common speech applied almost exclusively, when used alone, 

 to the Tetrao scoticus of Linnreus, the Lagopus scoticus of modern 

 systematists — more particulai'ly called in English the Red Grouse, 

 but not a century ago almost invariably spoken of as the Moor-fowl 

 or Moor-game. The effect which this species is supposed to have 

 on the British legislature, and therefore on history, is well known, 

 for it is the common though mistaken belief that parliament in 

 these days always rises when the season for Glrouse-shooting begins ; 

 but even of old time it seems to have excited on one occasion a 

 ciu-ious kind of influence, for we may read in the Orkneyinga Saga 

 (ed. Jonseus, p. 356; ed. Anderson, p. 168) that events of some 

 importance in the annals of North Britain followed from its piirsuit 

 in Caithness in the year 1157. The Red Grouse is found on moors 

 from Monmouthshire and Derbyshire northward to the Orkneys, as 

 Avell as in most of the Hebrides. It likewise inhabits similar 

 situations throughout Wales and Ireland, but it does not naturally 

 occur beyond the limits of the British Islands,^ and is the only 

 species among birds absolutely peculiar to them. The word 

 " species " may in this case be used advisedly ; since the Red 

 Grouse invariably " breeds true," it admits of an easy diagnosis, and 

 it has a definite geographical range ; but scarcely any zoologist who 

 looks further into the matter can doubt of its common origin with 

 the Willow-Grouse, Lagopus albus (L. suhalpinus or L. saliceti of some 

 authors),^ that inhabits a subarctic zone from Norway across the 

 whole continent of Europe and Asia, as well as North America 

 from the Aleutian Islands to Newfoundland. ^ The Red Grouse 

 indeed is rarely or never found away from the heather on which 

 chiefly it subsists, and with which it is in most men's minds 

 associated ; while the Willow - Grouse in many parts of the Old 

 World seems to prefer the shrubby growth of iDerry-bearing plants 



commonly spelt, but by many writers or printers the final e is now omitted. In 

 1611 Cotgrave had " Poule griesche. A Moore-henne ; the henne of the Grice 

 [in ed. 1673 "Griece"] or Mooregame " {Didionarie of the French and English 

 Tongues, sub voce Foule). The most likely derivation seems to be from the old 

 French word Griesche, Greoche, or Griais (meaning speckled, and cognate with 

 griseus, gi'isly or grey), which was applied to some kind of Partridge, or accord- 

 ing to Brunetto Latini {Tris. p. 211) to a QuaU, "porce que ele fu premiers 

 trovee en Grece " ! 



^ It was successfully, though with much trouble, introduced by Baron 

 Dickson, on a tract of land near Gottenburg in Sweden {Svenska Jdgarforbwndets 

 Nya Tidskrift, 1868, p. 64 et alibi), and seemed likely to maintain itself there, 

 so long at least as the care hitherto bestowed upon it is continued ; but of its 

 present condition I know nothing. 



^ It is to this species that belong, almost wthout exception, the thousands 

 of birds sold in our markets as " Ptai-migan." 



^ Examples from Newfoundland have been described {Atik, 1884, p. 369) as 

 forming a "subspecies," L. alleni. 



