ON MOORS, COMMONS, AND HEATHS. 165 



south-west of England. Those that leave us do 

 so in October, and return to their old haunts in 

 April. This bird begins to lay in May, depositing 

 its two eggs in a little hollow where the ground is 

 bare of vegetation and strewn with pebbles. They 

 are buff in ground colour, spotted and streaked 

 with light and dark brown and gray, and so 

 closely resemble the colour of the ground that 

 their discovery is very difficult. The Stone Cur- 

 lew feeds on worms, snails, beetles, frogs, and 

 even mice. This bird is a very conspicuous one 

 on the heath, standing high ; and when it takes 

 flight the white bands across the wings and the 

 white on the outermost tail feathers are very 

 striking. The general colour of its upper plumage 

 is grayish brown, streaked with dark brown, each 

 feather margined with buff; the underparts are 

 white, streaked with brown on the breast and 

 flanks ; the two black moustachial lines, the black 

 and yellow bill, and the very large prominent eye, 

 are also noteworthy features of this species. This 

 plumage, especially in summer, is very protective, 

 a fact of which the bird seems fully aware, as 

 it often squats flat on the ground when menaced 

 by danger. 



Where the heaths and commons are more 

 than usually wooded, we may sometimes flush the 

 BLACK GROUSE (Tetrao tetrix), a bird easily recog- England 

 nised by his glossy blue-black plumage, scarlet Scotland, 

 wattle, white wing-bar, and lyre-shaped tail. The Lc 

 female, however, is mottled brown and buff, more 

 like the female Red Grouse in appearance, but 

 larger. The Black Grouse is also a dweller in 

 the woods, but as he shows a decided preference 

 for open situations even bare hillsides I have 



