THE REL GROUSE 215 
her to be wounded. By August 20, the young are supposed to be 
fully fledged, and the sportsman is expected not only to show his 
skill as a marksman, but his quickness of eye in discriminating 
between males and females as the covey rises. The former are to be 
distinguished by their richer colouring, and by the more strongly 
marked white on the wings. At this season the old Black Cocks 
club together. 
The Black Cock is found in greater or less quantities in the moor- 
land districts of many of the English counties, but is most abun- 
dant in the north of England and Wales, and in Scotland. 
THE RED GROUSE 
LAGOPUS SCOTICUS 
Plumage chestnut brown, marked on the back with black spots and beneath 
with black lines ; a fringe of small white feathers round the eyes, and a 
white spot at the base of the lower mandible; a crimson fringed band 
above the eyes ; some of the feathers of the abdomen tipped with white ; 
tail of sixteen feathers, the four middle ones chestnut with black bars, 
the rest dusky ; feet and toes covered thickly with grey hair-like feathers. 
Female—the red eye-lid less conspicuous ; colours not so dark and tinged 
with reddish yellow, the black spots and lines more numerous. Length 
sixteen inches. Eggs reddish ash colour, nearly covered with blotches 
and spots of deep red-brown. 
THE diminution of the number of Pheasants in France, owing to a 
relaxation of the efforts formerly made to protect them, and the 
abundance of the same birds, in those parts of England where un- 
ceasing care is taken of them in severe or protracted winters, tend 
to prove the great difficulty of preserving a foreign bird in a country 
which is not in every respect adapted to its habits and constitution. 
On the other hand, the undiminished abundance of Red Grouse in 
Great Britain, in spite of the absence of all artificial protection, and 
notwithstanding the vast quantity which annually fall a prey to 
vermin, poachers, and sportsmen, proves as satisfactorily that 
where a bird has become abundant, in a country in all respects suited 
to its constitution and producing an inexhaustible supply of its 
natural food, it is impossible to extirpate it. If we ever had occasion 
to adopt a bird as a national emblem, the choice might for one 
reason fall on the Red Grouse. It is a native of the British Isles, 
and is found in no other country. On the moors of Scotland, the 
hilly parts of the north of England, the mountains of Wales, and 
the wastes of Ireland, it is as wild and free as the Gull on the sea- 
cliff. It frequents extensive heaths where man could not protect 
it if he would, and finds no stint of food where few living things can 
exist but insects and some of the larger rapacious animals which 
make it their special prey. Eagles, Falcons, Buzzards, Crows, 
Foxes, Martins, and Polecats, all wage against it incessant war; it 
