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THE RED GROUSE. 



La g opus Scotlcus. LEACH. 

 PLATE XVIII. 



Red Grouse, Muirfowl of British Ornithologists Tetrao 

 Scoticus, Auctorum. Lagopus Scoticus, Leach. 



THE Muirfowl, the delight of the sportsman, may 

 be placed at the head of the sports of the fowler ; it 

 is to him what the fox is to the hunter, the salmon to 

 the fisher. The light air of the early morning of a 

 fine twelfth, and the free and open almost unbound- 

 ed prospect, exhilarate the spirits ; while the boldness 

 of the game upon discovery, erectly uttering his cry 

 of warning to his brood, his vigorous lengthened 

 flight, so long as to create doubts of his being again 

 seen, carry with them a continuation of excitement, 

 long after it is satiated with following the skulking 

 black game, or the more rural amusement of walk- 

 ing up partridges. But independent of this claim 

 upon the sportsman, it has another : the red grouse 

 is exclusively confined to the British Islands, and 

 has never been found on any part of the Continent, 

 and it would be much to be regretted if unlimited 

 persecution or want of preservation should in after 

 years exterminate this bird, so exclusively national. 



