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BIRD-LIFE ON THE MOORS IN DECEMBER. 



THE month of December, in a mild season, does not 

 materially differ, ornithologically speaking, from November, 

 as described in the last chapter. The Grouse, still largely 

 in pairs or in small lots chiefly composed of aggregated pairs, 

 continue to hold their matutinal concerts, and the old 

 Blackcocks bubble and sneeze on their chosen hillocks. 

 Even the young cocks of the year now commence to strut 

 and caper among the assembled Grey-hens, as I have 

 already mentioned. Despite the thinning of their ranks by 

 three or four months' shooting, both Grouse and Blackgame 

 appear fully as numerous in December as at any previous 

 period of the autumn, sometimes even more so. It seems 

 probable, or even certain, that we have in Northumberland 

 at this season a considerable immigration of both kinds 

 (but especially of Blackgame), which have moved southward 

 to escape the greater severities of winter on the higher and 

 more exposed moorlands further north. With this ex- 

 ception, but little change is perceptible in the habits or 

 distribution of the regular moor-frequenting birds in a mild 

 December. 



But December is not always mild. On the contrary, 

 about one year in every three is characterized on the Border 

 hills by severe and protracted snow-storms, which completely 

 change the face of nature, and greatly alter the normal 

 conditions of wild life. Than the appearance of the great 

 rolling hills, when newly enveloped in their wintry mantle, 

 there are few more imposing, and, sui generis, more lovely 

 spectacles. Where in August one's eye ranged over a wide 



