33 Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



continued for a long time, commencing in the month of September 

 about half an hour after sunset. From about the same spot I have 

 heard this call on many evenings, thus indicating the partiality of 

 these birds to a favourite roosting-place. During one of these walks 

 in the month of June, a pointer-dog was inconsiderately allowed to 

 follow me, and by his trespassing on the breeding haunts of the 

 grouse, lapwing, and snipe, caused a continued uproar from the 

 three species, akin to that produced by birds on the sea-shore. 



The grouse breeds very early. On the 1 7th of March a sporting 

 friend once found a nest on the Belfast mountains, containing eleven 

 eggs. When hare-hunting here so late as the middle of April, I 

 have more than once, to my great regret, seen the pack of hounds 

 come upon the nest, and set to work so quickly, that every egg was 

 devoured before they could possibly be whipped off. Fortunately, 

 this bird breeds a second time, if the first nest be destroyed. 



For the fact that grouse is a good bird for the table, we have no 

 less an authority than that of the illustrious John Locke ! In the 

 life of this philosopher by his descendant, Lord King, are directions, 

 &c. from Locke, apparently addressed to some foreigner about to 

 visit England, one sentence of which is — " Railes and heath-polts, 

 ruffs and reeves, are excellent meat wherever they can be met with." 

 —Page 134. 



The grouse is occasionally subject to variety in colour. One shot 

 in November 1826 by the Rev. Lord Edward Chichester, near Doagh, 

 in the county of Antrim, was pure white, with the exception of the 

 two outer primaries, and an equal number of the feathers of the greater 

 wing-coverts, which remained unchanged. It was a large and healthy- 

 looking bird. 



My friend John Sinclaire, Esq. of Belfast, who has been a regular 

 grouse-shooter for upwards of sixty years, states that about Ballan- 

 trae, in Ayrshire, he has found grouse in_ stubble and in grass fields 

 a mile distant from the mountain heath, and has sprung them from 

 the heath in plantations of young trees about fifteen feet in height. 

 He considers that the scarcity of grouse in many places is owing to 

 the increase of sheep pasturing. The nests of this bird are trodden 

 on by the sheep, and the burning of the heath on their account, 

 even if practised at a proper season, deprives the grouse of shelter 

 for some years, and not very unfrequently, by being carried into 

 execution in the early spring, destroys their eggs. Where horned 

 cattle are pastured, he considers grouse to be as numerous as ever. 

 The black grouse, by nestling in marshy 2)laces, is not subjected to 

 tlie casualties just noticed, and hence one reason of the decrease of 

 the former, and increase of the latter, in some districts. 



On looking to the food contained in grouse when their favourite 

 berries were not to be had, I have found it to be chiefly the tops of 

 heath, with occasionally the stem of the bilberry (Vaccinium Myr- 

 tilhis). On opening the intestines of a diseased grouse, shot on the 

 14th of August at Ballantrae, (but which had been wounded per- 

 haps three weeks before,) I found them nearly full of tape-worms 

 (Tania). Its gizzard was entirely filled with the fruit of the Empe- 



