192 PBAIKIE AND FOREST. 



if possible, their extinction. I cannot well imagine any 

 place so bleak in winter as the scrub uplands of the two 

 afore-mentioned islands, unless perhaps Mull and Jura on 

 our Scotch coast. The bird that could with impunity 

 withstand the rigours of the cold in the former, could 

 doubtless do the same in the latter. The pinnated grouse 

 pairs in March, and generally produces from twelve to 

 fourteen young at a brood ; the chicks very early take to 

 the wing, but their flight is weak and short until they are 

 more than half-grown. During the infancy of the family 

 the courage and artifice of the parent bird to intimidate or 

 draw off intruders are worthy of notice. At first she will 

 fly towards you as if intent on doing you battle, but when 

 this course has failed, she will retire, droop her wings, 

 struggle on the ground, only just keeping beyond your 

 grasp, always moving in a direction contrary to where her 

 brood are hid, until parent instinct tells her that the 

 children are safe, when suddenly, on strong wings, she will 

 start for a distant flight. The facility with which the 

 young secrete themselves is most surprising. Frequently 

 have I got unexpectedly into the centre of a family, when 

 up they would rise like a flight of bees and as rapidly drop 

 again ; certainly you see the exact spot on which they ho.ve 

 alighted that tuft of grass you believe most surely 

 contains one, but search as you will, turn over carefully 

 every blade, look well about the roots all is useless, for 

 no fledgling will you discover. 



At the commencement of the pairing season, particularly 

 if the weather is calm and cloudy, the male birds call all 

 day ; their note resembling the lowing of a cow, which can 



