36 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GROUSE 



from their tender charge. Grouse are good parents, 

 full of solicitude for their young, and will endure any 

 danger rather than allow their chicks to be injured. 

 Sometimes they succeed even in beating off the attack 

 of the hooded crow, or that rascally marauder the 

 female sparrow hawk. 



Grouse seem to me to thrive best upon moors of 

 moderate elevation. The low-lying grounds suit them 

 very well in winter, when snow and sleet have driven 

 them down from the hills, and they will then fly long dis- 

 tances. It is not at all unusual for red grouse to cross 

 the Solway Firth at a point where the estuary measures 

 two miles in breadth, and I have known them fly 

 longer distances. They often cross the valley of the 

 Tees, flying about a mile from one hillside to another. 

 Mr. Millais observes that ' the usual length of a 

 grouse's flight ranges from a quarter to three-quarters 

 of a mile, depending entirely, of course, on the nature 

 of the ground over which they are passing, being as a 

 rule much shorter on heather flats, where they have- 

 numerous and agreeable resting places, than on broken 

 ground and rocky hill places. In a discussion which 

 took place in the " Field " I noticed that most sports- 

 men were of opinion that grouse were incapable of 

 flying four miles ; but I have twice seen grouse on the 

 wing when they were crossing the " Bring," a wide 



