CHAPTER XVII. THE BLACK 

 GROUSE. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



MUCH as Tetrao tetrix differs from T. Scoticus in its 

 plumage, the difference is still more marked in the 

 habits of these two game birds. The red grouse is essen- 

 tially a moor bird, but although black game are for the 

 most part found in and near moorland, they are a far more 

 tree-loving bird. Wild, rough, half-cultivated country is 

 what the blackcock prefer ; where the ground is broken, the 

 surface abrupt and irregular, where open moorland alternates 

 with low boggy morass and thick, low coverted plantings 

 or woods ; these are the parts of Great Britain not 

 Ireland, be it noted where the muirfowl loves to pass its 

 days and multiply its species. It is, however, not a very 

 discriminating bird, and if the march of cultivation has 

 trespassed on its limits, it is quite ready to take - up its 

 abode on any odd expanses of moorland, common, or 

 brush, obtruding amongst the cultivated fields, provided 

 the spot be a fairly sequestered one, and its domain be 

 undisturbed. The beau ideal of black game ground may 



' K2 



