GROUSE 389 
but in common speech applied almost exclusively, when used alone, 
to the Yetrao scoticus of Linneus, the Lagopus scoticus of modern 
systematists—more particularly called in English the Red Grouse, 
but not a century ago almost invariably spoken of as the Moor-fowl 
or Moor-game. The effect which this species is supposed to have 
on the British legislature, and therefore on history, is well known, 
for it is the common though mistaken belief that parliament in 
these days always rises when the season for Grouse-shooting begins ; 
but even of old time it seems to have excited on one occasion a 
curious kind of influence, for we may read in the Orkneyinga Saga 
(ed. Jonzus, p. 356; ed. Anderson, p. 168) that events of some 
importance in the annals of North Britain followed from its pursuit 
in Caithness in the year 1157. The Red Grouse is found on moors 
from Monmouthshire and Derbyshire northward to the Orkneys, as 
well as in most of the Hebrides. It likewise inhabits similar 
situations throughout Wales and Ireland, but it does not naturally 
occur beyond the limits of the British Islands,’ and is the only 
species among birds absolutely peculiar to them. The word 
“species” may in this case be used advisedly; since the Red 
Grouse invariably “ breeds true,” it admits of an easy diagnosis, and 
it has a definite geographical range ; but scarcely any zoologist who 
looks further into the matter can doubt of its common origin with 
the Willow-Grouse, Lagopus albus (L. subalpinus or L. saliceti of some 
authors),? that inhabits a subarctic zone from Norway across the 
whole continent of Europe and Asia, as well as’ North America 
from the Aleutian Islands to Newfoundland.? The Red Grouse 
indeed is rarely or never found away from the heather on which 
chiefly it subsists, and with which it is in most men’s minds 
associated ; while the Willow-Grouse in many parts of the Old 
World seems to prefer the shrubby growth of berry-bearing plants 
commonly spelt, but by many writers or printers the final ¢ is now omitted. In 
1611 Cotgrave had ‘‘ Poule griesche. A Moore-henne; the henne of the Grice 
[in ed. 1673 ‘‘Griece”] or Mooregame” (Dictionarie of the French and English 
Tongues, sub voce Poule). The most likely derivation seems to be from the old 
French word Griesche, Greoche, or Griais (meaning speckled, and cognate with 
griseus, grisly or grey), which was applied to some kind of Partridge, or accord- 
ing to Brunetto Latini (7’rés. p. 211) to a Quail, ‘‘porce que ele fu premiers 
trovée en Grece” ! 
1 It was successfully, though with much trouble, introduced by Baron 
Dickson, on a tract of land near Gottenburg in Sweden (Svenska Jégarférbundets 
Nya Tidskrift, 1868, p. 64 et alibz), and seemed likely to maintain itself there, 
so long at least as the care hitherto bestowed upon it is continued ; but of its 
present condition I know nothing. 
° It is to this species that belong, almost without exception, the thousands 
of birds sold in our markets as ‘‘ Ptarmigan.” 
3 Examples from Newfoundland have been described (Auk, 1884, p. 369) as 
forming a ‘‘subspecies,” L. alleni. 
