160 OUR RARER BIRDS 



The food of the Black Grouse is almost entirely composed 

 of vegetable substances, varied according to the season of the 

 year. Thus in summer the bird feeds upon seeds and the 

 tender shoots of heather and leaves, and also insects of various 

 kinds, especially ants and their eggs, on which the young are 

 largely reared. The various wild fruits and berries of the 

 moor and mountain side are consumed in autumn, at which 

 season it is also seen on the stubbles near its haunts picking 

 up the scattered grain. In the winter months, when the bleak 

 mountain sides seem unable to support a bird of any kind, 

 the Black Grouse lives sumptuously on the willow twigs, 

 birch catkins, leaves and shoots of turnips, various buds, 

 especially those of the alder, and the never-failing leaves of 

 the heather. 



Black Grouse moult in July and August, and at that time 

 skulk about a good deal amongst the herbage. The males 

 seldom visit the trees till they obtain their new feathers, and 

 the females keep well out of sight. Young of this species, as 

 every game preserver knows, are extremely difficult to rear, 

 wet seasons being especially fatal to them ; and many nests 

 are washed away through being made too near the rapidly 

 rising mountain torrents. The sportsman will also find that 

 on the dull misty autumn days this species often sits in the 

 low trees and lets him approach within gunshot ; and as the 

 Ked Grouse always endeavours to fly down wind, he will just 

 as surely find the Black Grouse try to fly up wind. If much 

 shot at, the birds generally mount up high in air and fly away 

 to some distant cover. He will also notice that the birds 

 rarely fly uphill, but when flushed on the mountain sides 

 hurry off to a lower level. 



