196 'THE TWELFTH' 



tains, from the Arctic Circle to the Engadine; but the 

 red grouse is the exclusive property of the British Isles. 

 They tell me that they have succeeded in naturalising 

 it on certain German moors; but it will require close 

 evidence to convince me of the genuineness of grouse 

 made in Germany ! Baron Dickson, also, claimed to have 

 established this bird forty years ago on a waste near 

 Gothenburg in Sweden, but we don't hear much about it 

 now. The red grouse remains the only species of bird 

 which may be justly claimed as exclusively British and 

 Irish. Originally, no doubt, it was derived from a 

 common stock with the willow grouse, Lagopus albus, 

 which inhabits sub-arctic regions both in Europe and 

 America, and, turning white in winter, is sold by thousands 

 as 'ptarmigan' in all our great towns. In summer 

 plumage the two birds still bear a pretty close resemblance 

 to each other ; their voice, eggs, and anatomy are not to 

 be distinguished apart; yet no man would hesitate to 

 class them as distinct species. The red grouse never 

 * shows the white feather ' in winter ; he never is found far 

 from the heather, which affords his staple diet, and he 

 never enters a wood ; whereas the willow grouse frequents 

 thickets of birch, willow, and stunted shrubs, subsisting 

 upon buds and berries in their season. One rival, indeed, 

 has been set up to dispute the claim of the red grouse as 

 the only exclusively British bird in the diminutive person 

 of the St. Kilda wren. Admitting that severe and pro- 

 tracted isolation and peculiar environment have induced 

 permanent features in this little bird differentiating it 

 from the common wren of our hedgerows, and con- 

 stituting it a separate species, it is not so clear that the 

 St. Kilda wren is different from the wren of the Faroes 



