1O4 Practical Game Preserving. 



land. It evidently prefers land of a medium description, 

 between the barren stony wastes where ptarmigan may be 

 sought for, and the marshy low tracks of moor, bog, and 

 young plantations which seem to suit chiefly the tastes of 

 black game. It must not be imagined, however, that grouse 

 do not lend themselves to some extent to altered conditions 

 of existence which may be forced upon them. On the con- 

 trary, the labours of game preservers in introducing hand- 

 reared birds have certainly been successful in retaining 

 grouse in the neighbourhood of cultivated ground, and 

 despite the presence of flocks of sheep and their belongings 

 on the moors. It is difficult to specify the peculiarities which 

 cause one moor to be held in more favourable regard than 

 others by the birds, but there is no doubt that such is the 

 case. The chief desiderata, it may be assumed, are that the 

 formation of the ground serves to some extent to shelter the 

 slopes principally frequented from heavy inclemencies of 

 weather ; that any rain falling be quickly carried off, leaving 

 a quick drying surface ; that the cover be thick ; that there 

 be frequent inequalities of surface and a good supply of 

 food besides that from the heather. Grouse have no par- 

 ticular spots which they frequent as roosting places, but will 

 roost in one particular spot or close to it for several nights, 

 sometimes for a week or so in succession. They are, how- 

 ever, very uncertain birds, and shift their quarters apparently 

 without reason or aim. 



Curiously, the red grouse is monogamous, so strictly, indeed, 

 that we believe the instances of departure from this rule are 

 curiosities of zoology. This strikes us as a singular charac- 

 teristic, for both black game and the now rare capercailzie 



