354 TETRAONIDJ:. 



In the summer these birds live upon seeds, the tender 

 shoots of heath, leaves, and some insects. In autumn they 

 feed on berries of various sorts, occasionally visiting corn- 

 fields and stubbles ; and in winter I have found their crops 

 distended with the tips of the most recent shoots of pines 

 and firs. 



The supply of these birds to the London poulterers is 

 very large and continuous, from the end of August till the 

 following month of April; during the first four months 

 from Scotland, and afterwards from Norway and Sweden. 

 Grouse shooting commences in Norway on the first day of 

 August ; and so numerous are these birds in some parts of 

 Sweden, where they are strictly preserved, where the hens 

 are never shot at, and no spring shooting allowed, that one 

 hundred Black cocks have not unfrequently been killed in 

 one day. 



In the southern parts of England, Black Grouse are found 

 in Sussex, on Ashdown Forest ; in Surrey, on St. Leonard's 

 Forest, near Horsham, and from Pudmores along the brows 

 of the heath-hills towards Tilford, and again from Tilford 

 up to the Devil's Punch -bowl on Hindhead. In 1815, H. 

 M. Thornton, Esq., of Chobham, brought two Black cocks 

 and three Grey hens from Holland. These birds were 

 turned out on the Hurtwood, a tract of heath between 

 Guildford and Dorking. At that time this species of 

 game had been extinct in that part for fifty years ; but 

 these foreign birds, being well preserved, have replenished 

 the district. They bred the following spring after their 

 introduction, and the first nest observed was within a 

 hundred yards of the spot where they were first turned 

 out. Some of the descendants of these birds have strayed 

 to the heathy districts between Farnham and Bagshot, and 

 have extended themselves as far as Finchampstead in Berk- 

 shire. Black Grouse occur again in Hampshire, on the 



