BLACKGAME 61 



Forest, Woolmer Forest, and parts of Staffordshire and 

 Dartmoor used also to be good, but there are only a few 

 stragglers now left. Like the Capercaillie, Blackgame show 

 no permanent attachment to places where they have been 

 introduced, and will not stay any length of time in some 

 districts even where conditions are favourable to their 

 habits in every respect. Introduction has been tried 

 without success in a number of places, most noticeably 

 in Norfolk and Ireland ; but it has always resulted in 

 failure, the birds staying till the following spring, some- 

 times a little longer, and eventually disappearing entirely. 

 The ground Blackgame like best is a rough and broken 

 country bordering cultivated and arable land, where birch 

 and fir woods fringe the wild moorlands, where they find 

 good cover amongst the deep heather and rushy margins 

 of the mountain burns, and every kind of insect and 

 vegetable food is easily to be had within reach. This 

 is the chief attraction to a gourmet like the Blackcock, 

 who is wont to change his diet every three months, 



/ 



stuffing his crop every morning and evening as tight as a 

 drum with whatever delicacies the different seasons afford 

 in the shape of fruits, heather, grain, or insects. When 

 their natural homes cannot supply these latter necessaries, 

 their instinct is called into play, and they will wander far 

 to obtain them. I have often shot birds out of turnips 

 and potato-patches in October, that must have travelled 

 many miles to gratify their palates : the crop of a Greyhen 

 which I opened contained raspberries, blaeberries, ants, 

 heather, grass, and oats, and the bird, after having half- 

 filled her crop with the grain, had evidently completed 

 her dinner with a course of meat and dessert. 



