RED GROUSE. 429 



cliffs sometimes rise to an elevation of two thousand feet above the level 

 of the sea. The moors are interspersed in many parts with narrow winding 

 valleys, locally called " groughs," where you may often get a chance shot 

 at a Grouse when you have learnt where to look for him. Nothing is more 

 delightful than to stroll up these " groughs" in spring, on the edges of the 

 streams which generally run down them. The sloping banks are a 

 favourite breeding-place of the Ring-Ouzel ; sometimes a chance Black 

 Grouse nests in a quiet corner ; the Twite is generally to be seen, and, 

 strange to say, the Grasshopper Warbler may often be heard. In the 

 lower ground you may often flush a Snipe ; and as you emerge from the 

 " grough " on the higher plateaux you are not unlikely to come upon a 

 Curlew or a party of Golden Plovers, and if you are lucky you may drop 

 upon their nests. In early spring you may chance on a small flock of 

 Dotterel resting on the hills during their migrations, but the Red Grouse 

 remains always the bird par excellence of the moors. 



Of course these moors are very strictly preserved ; and the only way to 

 ornithologize upon them with any comfort is to make friends with the 

 gamekeeper. These men are generally very zealous in looking after their 

 employers' interests, and are indefatigable in pursuing trespassers and hunt- 

 ing down all sorts of vermin. Weasels, Stoats, Magpies, and Jays are 

 trapped and ignominiously nailed to the rail or fastened to the wall which 

 forms the gamekeeper's museum of trophies. They undoubtedly deserve 

 their fate, if the sucking of the eggs or the devouring of the young of the 

 sacred Grouse constitutes a capital crime. The Carrion-Crow and the 

 Rook are perhaps greater criminals ; but their extra cunning enables them 

 to escape their due share of punishment. When the young Grouse begin 

 to run, the Sparrow-Hawk, the Merlin, and occasionally a Harrier are 

 special objects of the gamekeeper's care. The greater number of these 

 Hawks are shot off evjery year, generally when they have young of their 

 own and can be more easily approached within gunshot ; but every spring 

 brings a fresh supply. The gamekeeper's museum would, however, be 

 but thinly stocked with Hawks, did he not eke out their number with 

 a goodly row of Kestrels, and with such birds as Cuckoos and Nightjars. 

 It is melancholy to contemplate the wholesale slaughter of these innocent 

 and charming birds. 



The Red Grouse is an early breeder and is strictly monogamous, each 

 male pairing with a female and assisting her to rear the young. In the 

 sheltered lower grounds eggs are occasionally seen before the end of 

 March ; but on the high grounds I have frequently seen eggs unhatched 

 in June. In some seasons a sudden fall of snow has been known to cover 

 the ground to such a depth that the poor Grouse have been unable to find 

 their nests ; and after such storms the gamekeepers pick up eggs here and 

 there, which, as they express it, have been " laid wide." The situation of 



