RED GROUSE. 429 
cliffs sometimes rise to an elevation of two thousand feet above the level 
of the sea. ‘The moorsare interspersed in many parts with narrow winding 
valleys, locally called ‘‘ groughs,” where you may often get a chance shot 
at a Grouse when you have learnt where to look for him. Nothing is more 
delightful than to stroll up these “ groughs”’ in spring, on the edges of the 
streams which generally run down them. The sloping banks are a 
favourite breeding-place of the Ring-Ouzel ; sometimes a chance Black 
Grouse nests in a quiet corner; the T'wite is generally to be seen, and, 
strange to say, the Grasshopper Warbler may often be heard. In the 
lower ground you may often flush a Snipe; and as you emerge from the 
“grough” on the higher plateaux you are not unlikely to come upon a 
Curlew or a party of Golden Plovers, and if you are lucky you may drop 
upon their nests. In early spring you may chance ona small flock of 
Dotterel resting on the hills during their migrations, but the Red Grouse 
remains always the bird par excellence of the moors. 
Of course these moors are very strictly preserved ; and the only way to 
ornithologize upon them with any comfort is to make friends with the 
gamekeeper. ‘These men are generally very zealous in looking after their 
employers’ interests, and are indefatigable in pursuing trespassers and hunt- 
ing down all sorts of vermim. Weasels, Stoats, Magpies, and J ays are 
trapped and ignominiously nailed to the rail or fastened to the wall which 
forms the gamekeeper’s museum of trophies. They undoubtedly deserve 
their fate, if the sucking of the eggs or the devouring of the young of the 
sacred Grouse constitutes a capital crime. The Carrion-Crow and the 
Rook are perhaps greater criminals ; but their extra cunning enables them 
to escape their due share of punishment. When the young Grouse begin 
to run, the Sparrow-Hawk, the Merlin, and occasionally a Harrier are 
special objects of the gamekeeper’s care. The greater number of these 
Hawks are shot off every year, generally when they have young of their 
own and can be more easily approached within gunshot; but every spring 
brings a fresh supply. The gamekeeper’s museum would, however, be 
but thinly stocked with Hawks, did he not eke out their number with 
a goodly row of Kestrels, and with such birds as Cuckoos and Nightjars. 
It is melancholy to contemplate the wholesale slaughter of these innocent 
and charming birds. 
The Red Grouse is an early breeder and is strictly monogamous, each 
male pairing with a female and assisting her to rear the young. In the 
sheltered lower grounds eggs are occasionally seen before the end of 
March; but on the high grounds I have frequently seen eggs unhatched 
in June. In some seasons a sudden fall of snow has been known to cover 
the ground to such a depth that the poor Grouse have been unable to find 
their nests ; and after such storms the gamekeepers pick up eggs here and 
there, which, as they express it, have been “laid wide.” The situation of 
