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



inhabits mountains, and is rarely seen in lower heath grounds. The 

 cock is almost black, but the female is coloured like a woodcock or 

 partridge." Were this description taken from native birds it would 

 be decisive as to the species, but it may quite as probably have been 

 copied from some descriptive work*. Mr. Templeton states, that 

 he had heard from excellent authority, that " black game is men- 

 tioned in some of the old leases of the county of Down," but proof 

 that the Tetrao Tetrix was the bird so alluded to, and did exist there, 

 is still wanting. Pennant, in his ' British Zoology' (1776), re- 

 marks, that " some have been shot in Ireland, in the county of 

 Sligo, where the breed was formerly introduced out of Scotland, 

 but I believe that at present the species is extirpated." 



That when Ireland abounded in natural wood, many portions of 

 the island may have been well-suited to the abode of the black 

 grouse, does not I conceive admit of any doubt; but, again, we know 

 not whether Great Britain may not geographically have been, within 

 its latitude, the extreme western range of the S2Jecies. I have not 

 seen any record of its being met with west of Great Britain, 

 in any latitude f. Since the period mentioned by Pennant, this 

 species has been introduced into diiferent parts of Ireland, and 

 being turned out, lived occasionally for some years, but I am not 

 aware of its having bred in any instance. There are in the county 

 of Antrim, just opposite to the favoured haunts of this bird in 

 Scotland, localities which seem in every natui'al feature well-suited 

 to the black grouse. To two of these places, " Claggan," the 

 property of Viscount O'Neil ; and Glenarm deer-park, belonging to 

 Edmund M'^Donnell, Esq., this bird has been introduced with the 

 follovv'ing success. I leave the respective game-keepers, both very 

 intelligent men, and the best " authorities" on the subject, to speak 

 for themselves. C. Redmond, gamekeeper at Claggan, informed me 

 by letter dated January 1, 1841, as follows : — 



" Twelve years ago (two years previous to my coming here) 

 there were four brace of black game turned out, a cock and hen of 

 which I frequently met with outside the plantations in the heath, 

 my pointer dogs setting them like grouse. They were never to be 

 seen together, but kept a mile separate, and each of them always 

 about the same place : the hen I found dead three years ago, and 

 supposed her to have been shot at by a party which Lord O'Neil 

 had here at that time. The cock has left us or been killed also. I 

 saw a cock that was shot last year at Glenariff near Cushendall, 

 [some miles distant] which may have been the same. I was at the 

 letting out of nine black game in 1832 in this place, and a single 



* Since this was written, I have had the opportunity of consulting Wil- 

 loughby's ' Ornithology,' and find that Smith borrows his description of the 

 birds and tlicir liaunts from that work. 



f The proximity of Ireland to Great Britain may be considered an ob- 

 jection to this view by those wlio liave not looked to the distribution of the 

 Vertelrala of the two islands. In the introduction to the Report on the 

 Fauna of Ireland, (publislied in tlie ' lleportsof theBritisli Association for the 

 Advancement of Science' for 1810,) remarks upon this subject will be found. 



