RED GROUSE. 367 



every year, the supply is large and constant. The females 

 of the Red Grouse occasionally to "be seen in the shops of 

 the London poulterers as late as March, have then begun 

 to assume the plumage peculiar to the breeding-season. 

 These having been killed very recently, I have observed 

 for several years, that a considerable portion of the birds 

 bore no marks of having been shot, and have probably been 

 caught by sliding loops of horse-hair set up across their 

 paths or runs in the heather. 



It has been observed that it seems almost marvellous 

 that a species which furnishes sport to so many, and to 

 such an extent, besides those taken clandestinely, should 

 continue to exist in such quantities in the country. The 

 Earl of Strathmore's gamekeeper was matched for a con- 

 siderable sum to shoot forty brace of moor game in the 

 course of the 12th of August, upon his lordship's moors 

 in Yorkshire : he performed it with great ease, shooting 

 forty-three brace by two o'clock ; at eight in the morning, 

 owing to a thick fog, he had only killed three birds, and 

 the odds ran much against him ; however, the day cleared 

 up by eleven, and the work of slaughter went on ra- 

 pidly. 



In 1801, a gentleman in Inverness -shire shot fifty-two 

 brace of moor game in one day, never killing a bird sitting, 

 or more than one bird at one shot. At the first of the 

 season the young birds lie close, particularly where the 

 heath is high and strong, affording excellent sport after a 

 favourable breeding-season, and the newspapers frequently 

 record the great numbers killed by parties that are favour- 

 ably located ; but as the season advances, the birds get 

 strong, and from being disturbed, become wild, and the 

 families uniting to form packs, are then very difficult to 

 get shots at. 



Among the quantities of Red Grouse received in London, 



