198 RED GROUSE. 



Both parents, when the young are hatched, attend to their 

 wants, and both will attempt to defend them against enemies, 

 and even the Scaul-crow is sometimes beaten off. Towards 

 the beginning of winter several flocks often unite together, 

 to the number of thirty or forty, forming what are called 

 packs, and are then more shy than previously. In severe 

 winters these packs accumulate into very large bodies: in 

 1782-3 it is said by Thornton that four thousand were observed 

 together. 



Their flight, for the most part low and heavy, but strong, 

 and often extended to a considerable distance, is straight, 

 accompanied by a whirring of the wings, which are rapidly 

 moved, and at times, especially if declining along the mountain 

 side, they sail with outstretched and motionless pinions. 

 They do not ordinarily fly much, but prefer the concealment 

 of the heath, a natural protection against their various natural 

 enemies, their colour also assimilating to it: they therefore 

 run to some distance, or squat down to conceal themselves, 

 rising if the danger appears too proximate; then the male 

 stretches up his head to reconnoitre, and with a loud call 

 takes wing, followed by the female and the young. 



The tender leaves and shoots of the heath and ling are 

 the main articles of food of the Grouse, as also those of cotton 

 grass and various grasses, the willows, the trailing arbutus, 

 the bedstraw, the whortleberry, the crowberry, the bilberry, 

 and the berries of the latter-named of these, but they also 

 feed voraciously on corn, if any is grown within their reach, 

 oats especially, and swallow small particles of stone in aid of 

 digestion. The pieces of the heath which they take are about 

 half an inch long each, and these they select as they walk 

 about among the heather. When not feeding they rest within 

 its shelter, or bask in the sun in some open place, under the 

 cover of some tuft or bush. 



The bold challenge of the Moor-cock, imaginable into a 

 'go, go, go-back, go-back,' a call of defiance, or of alarm to 

 their mate or young, or both, in the spring or the autumn, 

 as the case may be, is heard both early in the morning, soon 

 after dawn, and late in the evening, as. also at times throughout 

 the day: the ordinary note is a deep and quickly-repeated 

 'coc, coc.' 



The Moor-cock pairs early in the spring, commonly in 

 January, but sometimes even earlier. A brood of young 

 Grouse, able to fly a little, were discovered on the 5th. of 



