IN PRAISE OF THE GROUSE 17 



enabled to deliver to me the whole lot of seven brace 

 (more were not to be had at the time). 



' The birds this time flew strongly when let out in 

 their inclosure, but did not hurt themselves, owing 

 to the canvas spread over the top. My sporting 

 neighbours all belong to the Prussian and Oldenburg 

 Forest and Moor Game Preservation Societies, to 

 both of which I successfully applied, and they have, 

 as before on the introduction of black-game, promised 

 that for some years to come the protection of these 

 grouse shall be looked upon by them as a strict duty. 

 So it is to be hoped that this attempt to naturalise 

 them in the plains of North-West Germany may suc- 

 ceed, as it did with the black-game, which had for 

 many a long year been extinct there.' 



And here I may remark that, as the red grouse is 

 systematically netted in large numbers in the north of 

 England, it should be easy enough for any of our 

 Continental neighbours to repeat the experiment just 

 described on a larger scale. Any such endeavour to 

 naturalise the red grouse abroad should be extended 

 over several seasons, and care should be taken to 

 supply an adequate number of female birds. The 

 latter are rather less hard}' than the opposite sex, and 

 are consequently more liable to perish on the journey 

 than their male companions. 



