GROUSE: THE HEATHER BIRD. 



into cultivated tracts for the purpose of feeding upon 

 the grain of oats, or rye, or often upon the blades 

 of corn. 



"During autumn and winter the males, having 

 laid aside their mutual animosity, associate together 

 in small flocks, apart from the females; but in the 

 spring they separate, and each chooses and maintains 

 his own exclusive territory. Here he calls the fe- 

 males around him, but these soon wander away in 

 search of sites for incubation, where, unassisted, they 

 rear their brood. The eggs vary from six to ten in 

 number. The young males are clothed in the garb 

 of the females till the autumnal months, when they 

 acquire the glossy black plumage of their own sex, 

 with whom they associate till the ensuing spring. 



"During the winter, when the snow is deep, the 

 black grouse feeds upon the tops and buds of the 

 birch and alder, and also upon the young and tender 

 shoots of the fir and pine, as well as of the tall 

 heath. 



"The red grouse, according to ornithologists, is 

 confined exclusively to the British Isles. As a rule, 

 it may be said that wherever in extensive hilly moor- 

 lands the Ling or Heather prevails, there, unless driven 

 from its asylums, the red grouse will be found in 

 more or less abundance. 



"They pair in January and breed in March. The 

 nest, if we may so call it, is composed of twigs of 

 Heather, wiry moorland grass, often cotton grass in- 

 termixed with a few feathers or a little coarse sheep's 

 wool. Sometimes the nest is placed under a deep 

 covert of Heather ; but we have seen it amid bilberry 

 183 



