198 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



introduced.— Ed.] Their coming was thus described 

 by Mr. W. Pearson in the Zoologist for 1850, p. 2968 : 

 "We have had, within these few years, an extensive 

 immigration of that noble bird, the Black Grouse, of 

 which, I believe, there is no record in memory that they 

 ever existed here before. About September, 1845, were 

 discovered six or eight Black Game about one and a half 

 miles from High Wra}^, and two were shot. They came 

 of their own accord. Other birds have followed the 

 larch plantations, as the. Crossbill, which has been pretty 

 numerous in Henry Curwen's woods. Black Game are 

 found at Cock Hag, betwixt Crook and Underbarrow ; at 

 Lamb How in Crosthwaite ; on the summit of Whitbar- 

 row ; on the heights of Cartmel Fell ; and in the woods 

 of Furness-fells as far down as Holker Hall. It is re- 

 markable that, within the period of my memory, the 

 summit of Cartmel Fell, then a heathy waste, was 

 tenanted by the Common Bed Grouse : it is now a larch 

 forest, and occupied by Black Game." This is a most 

 interesting example of the way in which changes in the 

 character of a district will bring about changes in its 

 avi-fauna, and it is gratifying to learn, as I do from Mr. 

 Piawdon B. Lee of Kendal {in cpist., November 22, 1882), 

 that the Black Grouse appears to be commoner now than 

 when Mr. Pearson wrote, being more plentiful in the 

 Winster district than elsewhere in the neighbourhood. 

 It is not found in any other locality in the county, and 

 an attempt which, Mr. T. Altham tells me, was made 

 about the year 1864 to introduce the species at "White- 

 well, in Bowland, by sitting a lot of eggs, resulted in 

 failure, the birds gradually diminishing, and disappear- 

 ing altogether after two or three years. 



