RED GROUSE. 187 
met with in the bleakest and most exposed situations. 
An exceptionally heavy fall of snow, or a blizzard 
sweeping across the summits, will, however, cause the 
birds to seek a temporary refuge in the valleys. On 
December 26th, 1895, we crossed the moors from 
Greenfield to Crowden in the teeth of a gale which 
drove the frozen particles of snow into our faces with 
such violence that we could hardly stand upright. 
Whilst ascending, we met the Red Grouse flying down 
wind in hundreds to find shelter in the valleys on the 
Yorkshire side, and when we reached the watershed 
not a bird was to be seen. 
At one time the Red Grouse was probably abun- 
dant on most of the mosses of the Plain; and until 
its purchase by the Manchester Corporation in 1886, 
Carrington Moss was a well-stocked grouse-moor. As 
the Moss was brought under cultivation the birds rapidly 
decreased in numbers, and finally disappeared in 1894. 
On the 25th of July in that year, Oldham flushed five 
birds from a field of cabbages in which they had 
sought cover, the last patch of heather having been 
broken up a day or two previously. Ten years before, 
numbers of Red Grouse might be seen in autumn 
feeding on and among the shocks of corn in fields 
surrounding the Moss. 
The Red Grouse has occasionally wandered to Wirral. 
Byerley mentions one which was shot at West Kirby, 
and a pair at Claughton Firwood.! 
1 Byerley, op. cit. p. 17. 
