BRITISH GAME-BIRDS. 185 



tops and green buds of heath, whortleberry, and 

 cranberry plants are what they mostly live on. 

 Favourite haunts of the young of the black-grouse 

 are the moist, swampy, rush-covered moors, where 

 they can feed on the juicy rush seeds. 



The red grouse, Scotland's own bird, is one of 

 the gamest birds on the list; although suspended 

 from the game - dealer's shop, he appears as 

 merely a red bird with dark markings, and white 

 flecks here and there, the feathers all ruffled any- 

 how. Becky, becky, becky, beck, beck, beck, c'm 

 back, c'm back, c'm back ! I hear as I tramp over 

 the moors, no gun, only a trusty staff in hand; 

 for I am just a lover of nature wandering over the 

 heather before the sun has cleared the early mists 

 away. C'm back, c'm back, becky, becky, becky, 

 back! and then, gock, gock, gock! 



Birds with clean sharp - cut wings dash hither 

 and thither through the mist, these are golden 

 plover; for they, with their small companions the 

 "plover's pages," the neat little dunlins, as all 

 grouse-shooters know well, frequent the haunts of 

 the red grouse. The heather is in flower, for the 

 twelfth of August is drawing near, and all the 



