16 THE GROUSE SUBFAMILY 



largely on heather, hips and haws, buds of birch and alder, and the 

 various plants which grow on old grass land. By the end of the 

 month, however, it would seem that, in Northumberland at any rate, 

 these birds return to their old haunts on the high moors, where, 

 during November and December, they seem to be met with in large 

 packs, choosing some flat-topped ridge whereon patches of short, 

 sweet grass and heather are found. Heavy rains, gales of wind, and 

 deep snow, it is to be noted, affect them less than is the case with 

 grouse, as we shall presently show. They seem under such conditions 

 to seek the lower wooded valleys and to shelter in the trees, perched 

 like rooks on the bare birches and hawthorns, and feeding on haws 

 and buds. 



Mr. Millais seems to incline to the belief that the sexes, when 

 "packing" in September, separate, the old males at any rate living 

 apart from September to March : indeed he goes further, for, in 

 another passage in the account to which we are referring, he remarks 

 that the males normally live apart from the females, keeping together 

 throughout the summer in small parties, " ' even ' in July and August 

 when in eclipse" the season most of all when one would imagine 

 they certainly would seek seclusion. But whether the packs are 

 mixed or not, they do not apparently change their quarters, according 

 to this author, till compelled by " the first fall of snow," when they 

 forsake the fringe of the moor for the deep heather found in the birch 

 and rowan area, in which sparse cover indeed, it seems, a few birds 

 may be found the year round. As a rule, he says, black-game avoid 

 heavy timber, seeking shelter therein only during exceptionally pro- 

 longed hard weather. And he, as it were, clinches this point by 

 remarking that as a rule they roost on the ground, but occasionally in 

 trees. 



One gathers from this brief sketch, and from Mr. Abel Chapman's 

 account, that the blackcock is not partial to woods. Yet Mr. Ogilvie- 

 Grant, who may certainly claim to have a fairly intimate first-hand 

 acquaintance with this bird, tells us that it is a denizen of the woods 



