RED GROUSE. 91 



By the approaches of cultivation to the higher dis- 

 tricts, and by insulated patches of grain even in the 

 middle of the wildest, the grouse have learned to 

 depend on the labours of the husbandman for his 

 winter's food, and instead of seeking a more pre- 

 carious subsistence, during the snow, of tender 

 heath-tops or other mountain plants, they migrate 

 to the lower grounds and enclosures, and before 

 the grain is removed, find a plentiful harvest. Hun- 

 dreds crowd the stooks in the upland corn-fields, 

 where the weather is uncertain, and the grain re- 

 mains out even till " December's snows ;" while in 

 the lower countries they seek what has been left 

 on the stubble or ploughed fields. It is only in 

 the wildest parts of the Highlands, the Cairngorm 

 range, Koss, or Sutherland, where the grouse is an 

 inhabitant, through the year, of the moors, his 

 native pasture, and where he is also nearly the 

 only enlivener of these wild solitudes, by his loud 

 morning and evening call. During summer it may 

 be varied by the whistle of the curlew, or the wail- 

 ing of the golden plover, or perhaps interrupted by 

 the sailing flight of some harrier or other bird of 

 prey ; but in winter, for miles around, . 



" Dwells but the gor-cock and the deer." 



Unless where much disturbed, the grouse is not 

 a wild bird, and, unaware of danger, it will allow 

 a person to approach or walk past, uttering only 

 its call, as if to make its companions aware that 

 something is near. In districts where they are 



