114 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



CHAPTER VII. 



" And mony a weary cast I made 

 To cuittle the muirfowl's tail." 



WALTER SCOTT. 



Red Grouse Limits of its Range Natural Enemies, winged 

 and four-footed The Badger unjustly proscribed 

 Unsuccessful Attempts to re-establish the Red Grouse in 

 the South of England Ptarmigan Its Haunts and 

 Habits British Game Birds Order in which they 

 arrive at Maturity Annual Importation of Ptarmigan 

 Highland Moors Mayo Mountains Shooting Expedi- 

 tionLodge Backward Season Operations deferred 

 Wild Scenery Youthful Ardour and Veteran Coolness 

 Variety of Sport. 



THE geographical distribution of the red grouse 

 being strictly limited to these islands, it is more 

 exclusively a British bird than any kind of 

 feathered game of which we can boast, all the 

 others being dispersed over different parts of the 

 continent of Europe. But as this exists in 

 Ireland, Wales, and in the North of England, 

 as well as in Scotland, its specific appellation 

 Scoticus is hardly correct; and it has been sug- 

 gested, with reason, that Britannicus would be a 

 more appropriate epithet. Being essentially a 



