1 6 NATURAL HI 'STORY OF THE GROUSE 



cock grouse in the company of a blackcock on my 

 preserve, and had the pleasure of listening to his call. 

 It also came to my knowledge that the hen was alive, 

 and that she had incubated for about fourteen days, 

 though too late in the year, for it was during the 

 harvesting of the buckwheat that she was disturbed 

 by the mowers. The cock and hen both flew away, 

 and the hen, alas ! never sought her nest again. The 

 eggs, fourteen in number, I have preserved. This 

 delightful discovery, that a pair of grouse had lived 

 all but two years on my property, and had even made 

 a good attempt to rear a brood, made me resolve to 

 go on with my experiments. The dealer to whom I 

 addressed myself undertook, for twenty marks the 

 pair, to deliver ten brace of grouse to me ; and we 

 came to an understanding that he should send them 

 at my cost from Hull to Bremen, that he should 

 undertake their being carefully secured in boxes made 

 expressly for the purpose, and that he should not be 

 bound to make good any losses that might occur. 

 Messrs. Weltmann, in Hull, who forward goods for 

 the North German Lloyd's Company, kindly under- 

 took the delivery of them, and promised to see that 

 they did not want for food or water on their thirty 

 hours' sea voyage; and thus, to my joy, my gamekeeper, 

 whom I had sent to Bremen to fetch the birds, was 



