RED GROUSE. 511 



population and enclosing of wild lands and moors. ... I have 

 been told, (and this from good authority), even his Majesty 

 had not tasted any till about ten years since, which, I believe, 

 came from my moors. I sent a fine pair, well set up, to 

 Linnaeus, in the year 1773, which he admired much, and 



acknowledged in a very polite letter One, of a much 



superior size than usual, was killed near Richmond, in York- 

 shire, in Oct. 1877, which weighed 25 ounces. Tho' very 

 shy in mild winters, yet in severe weather they will come 

 down to the vales in the neighbourhood of the moors, and 

 feed with the common fowls, and sit on the ling coverings 

 of the poor cottages, sometimes in great numbers, the poor 

 peasants not regarding them, or meddling with them. Was 

 told by a neighbouring apothecary, who goes into the fells 

 to visit his poor patients in this weather, that he has seen the 

 whole roof of the house covered with moor game, sitting so 

 quiet that they appeared at first like domestic poultry. . . . 

 Excuse this digression, as I am in the country of this fine 

 bird, the species of which I see daily expiring under my eyes, 

 to my great regret, even in my own property, notwithstanding 

 what care I can take of them." (Fox's " Synopsis," p. 79-80.) 



Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : 



Laaopus scoticus. Red Grouse Common on all the high moors. 



The Grouse may be termed the typical bird of Yorkshire, 

 as in no other English County is it so widely distributed or 

 so abundant ; it is found without exception throughout the 

 broad belt of moorland extending from the Derbyshire border 

 in the south to the extreme north, including Teesdale, and 

 the moors between the Cleveland and Hambleton Hills and 

 the coast line as far south as Scarborough ; nor is it confined 

 to the high moors, as on the low ground where heather is 

 common it is also to be met with in abundance ; in fact, 

 wherever there is a wide expanse of heather these birds will 

 be found more or less numerous. Mr. F. Boyes observes that 

 within his recollection heather was abundant in the Market 

 Weighton, Cliffe, and Holme-on-Spalding-Moor districts of the 

 East Riding, now under cultivation, and he can remember 

 the last Grouse being shot there. He is of opinion that they 



