GROUSE. 



RED GROUSE. Form, like the Ptarmigan 

 (plate 82). Length, 16 inches. Head and neck 

 reddish - brown ; upper parts chestnut, minutely 

 variegated with spots and bars of black ; breast 

 blackish, with white tips to the feathers. Resident. 



Eggs. 810, or more, buffy- white, densely mottled 

 with umber-brown; 1'75 x 1'2 inch (plate 129). 



Nest. Only a slight depression in the ground 

 among heather. 



Distribution. On the moorlands of Scotland, 

 northern England, Wales, and less commonly on the 

 moors and bogs of Ireland. 



Those who know the Partridge in the lowlands 

 will not fail to recognise much that is similar in 

 form and habits in the Red Grouse ; and those who 

 do not will find no other bird with which it could 

 be confounded in the places which it haunts. A 

 small-headed, small-billed bird, full-bodied and round- 

 tailed, with legs feathered to the toes and a red 

 wattle above the eyes, it spends its time 011 the 

 ground, where it runs nimbly, and where it lays its 

 eggs ; its food consists chiefly of the young shoots 

 of heather, above the limits of the growth of 

 which this bird is not found. When put up, it 

 rises with loudly whirring wings in a swift, dead- 

 ahead flight, skimming to earth again in the distance 



