76 TETRAONID^. 



Salmon mentions that one allowed him to take her off her 

 eggs. The cock bird does not share the duties of incuba- 

 tion, but while the hen is sitting he is generally not far off, 

 and at the approach of danger he utters his warning kok, 

 kok, kok. He is also in the habit of sitting on a hillock or 

 " knowe," and crowing at dawn, especially on clear frosty 

 mornings : the cry is peculiar, and not easily described, 

 that of the female being a strange nasal croak. The young 

 brood leave the nest soon after they are freed from the shell, 

 and are attended to by both the parent birds, under whose 

 example they learn to feed on the various vegetable sub- 

 stances by which they are surrounded. The extreme ends 

 of the common ling and fine-leaved heather, with the leaves 

 and berries of the black and red wortle, and crowberry, and 

 occasionally oats, when grown at the moor side, are the por- 

 tions and kinds of food most frequently found in their crops. 

 The variation in the plumage of the Ked Grouse is con- 

 siderable, especially in the feathers of the underparts ; and 

 those who have had opportunities of examining many ex- 

 amples, can give a good guess at the localities from which 

 they have come. Thus birds from the Hebrides and Wigton- 

 shire are said to be smaller and lighter in colour than those 

 from more eastern moors ; the Perthshire Grouse are smaller 

 and darker than those of Argyllshire, whilst in Lanark, Ren- 

 frew and the Border counties they are as light-coloured as 

 Partridges.* The Welsh birds are said to be large in size 

 and light in colour ; those from the north of England are 

 more rufous ; those from Ireland are much lighter, with a 

 yellowish-red tinge in the plumage, and browner legs. This 

 variation is principally noticeable in the underparts, and 

 may be partially attributable to age, but it has been gener- 

 ally ascribed to a tendency to assimilate with the ground 

 they frequent. Mr. E. T. Buckley, however (P. Z. S. 1882, 

 pp. 112-116), says that he has killed dark birds on light- 

 coloured ground, and that, considering the partially migratory 

 habits of the Grouse, which must descend from the higher 

 to the lower grounds as winter advances, it is scarcely 



* Colquhoun, 'The Moor and the Locb,' ed. 3, p. 112. 



! 



