AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 289 



aware of in which they are indigenous is Sherwood 

 Forest, in Nottinghamshire." 1 may add that my 

 informant was my cousin, the late Rev. George 

 Stopford, who was then rector of Warkton, near 

 Kettering, and saw the above-mentioned bird on 

 more than one occasion. 



The present is a very erratic species, and often 

 wanders far from its regular haunts, of which the 

 nearest to the above-mentioned locality is, as I 

 believe, really Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire. 



Abundant in many parts of Scotland, and more or 

 less common in the border counties of England, I 

 find the Black Grouse recorded as a resident species 

 in Nottingham, Salop, Stafford, Norfolk, AVilts, Berks, 

 Hants, Sussex, Surrey, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and 

 Cornwall, as also in a few counties of Wales, but in 

 none of these localities can it be called very common ; 

 it is not indigenous in Ireland, and all of the many 

 attempts made to establish it in various parts of that 

 country have, so far as I know, resulted in failure. 

 The localities especially affected by this species are 

 rough moors bordered by woods, with an abundant 

 supply of water and of rushes. In August and early 

 September I have often come upon broods of Black 

 Game far away from any trees or even bushes of any 

 kind, but never very far from water or the favourite 

 rashes. At this season there is no difficulty in 

 destroying the whole brood, as they run close before 

 the dogs and eventually squat till actually kicked up 

 one by one ; it is not, however, by any means so with 

 the old cock-birds, who are at all times exceedingly 

 wary and cunning, and, being in moult during the 

 early part of the shooting-season, are seldom to be 

 met with away from good covert, amongst which they 



IT 



