BED GROUSE. 197 



secure their stay. One was killed in Norfolk many years 

 since near Downham, and one in 1794< near "Wedhampton, in 

 Wiltshire. 



In the wild state they abound, in certainly a remarkable degree 

 considering the vast numbers that are shot every year, wher- 

 ever there is sufficiently long heather, which affords them 

 both home and food. The nature of the latter imparts a 

 peculiar bitter flavour to them, but the taste for it is soon 

 acquired, and there is hardly a better game bird. They pre- 

 fer drier places to the low and swampy. In the more remote 

 parts of Scotland they are looked upon as birds of good omen, 

 and their morning crow is considered as a signal for the dark 

 spirits of the night to take their departure. They are capable of 

 being kept in a state of domestication, and in some instances 

 have been known to breed in captivity; one pair in the aviary 

 of the Dowager Duchess of Portland, and another pair at Mr. 

 Grierson's, of Eathfarnham, in the county of Dublin; Lord 

 Stanley also had a pair which laid ten eggs and brought out 

 eight young: they had had a brood the year before he obtained 

 them. 



The Grouse frequents the higher, but not the highest, parts 

 of the heather-clad mountains, as likewise the hills and 

 moors, and also is found in the level country if interspersed 

 with heath. Archibald Hepburn, Esq. mentions in the 

 'Zoologist,' page 186, his having in one instance known a 

 hen bird among bent-covered sand hills, six miles from the 

 nearest heath, and there she brought up a brood of young. 

 In winter they for the most part descend to lower ranges 

 from the higher ones. . They generally go in pairs, but a 

 single bird is often seen; when the snow is on the ground 

 they congregate in flocks. In the spring the cock is pugnacioug 

 among his fellows, but not so much so as many other kindred 

 birds; at that time he is very bold, and seems to scorn fear, 

 as perched upon some old wall or hillock he crows aloud or 

 struts about, even though you pass quite close. 



If disturbed from the nest, on which, however, she will 

 often sit till about trodden upon, the hen Grouse will shuffle 

 through the heath in an awkward and apparently disabled 

 manner, or fly with a low and undecided flight to a little 

 distance, and then run off among it, and will not take wing till 

 she has proceeded to a considerable distance, in the endeavour 

 to allure the intruder to follow her; sometimes she even falls 

 a sacrifice to her careful anxiety: the male does not sit. 



