BLACK GROUSE. 231 



rapidly in the north part of the island, although that portion of it 

 is bare of cover. In autumn, it regularly frequents the stubble- 

 fields there, morning and evening, to feed. I have observed the 

 same habit of the species on the Loch Lomond range of hills, where 

 it is very abundant. In this district the birds are found from a 

 moderate elevation to the summit of the hills on the west side; 

 but, in the breeding season, the females appear to come nearer 

 the glens, especially those fringed with birch trees, at the root of 

 which the nests are often placed. 



Being anxious to know whether black game could be obtained 

 within sight of so large a city as Glasgow, I applied to Mr G. 

 Shirlaw of Motherwell, who has kindly sent me the following 

 note : " The moorland that I sometimes take a shot over, is in 

 the upper part of the parish of Carluke, from which, in a clear day, 

 St. Rollox is distinctly visible. Black game are scarcer than red 

 grouse, which are plentiful; the former breed sometimes well out 

 in the moors on suitable feeding ground, such as the margin of a 

 water course, where there is plenty of bent grass and rushes; but, 

 for the most part, you find them on half cultivated ground on the 

 outskirts of the moor, and the more readily if there should be a 

 scraggy plantation, high beech and birch hedges, and a meadow 

 close by." 



In connection with the food of this species, a curious fact is 

 mentioned by Dr John Walker, at one time professor of natural 

 history in the University of Edinburgh, in his work entitled, " An 

 Economical History of the Hebrides," etc. In vol. i., page 337, 

 the following note occurs : " The stomach of the Tetrao tetrix Linn, 

 or black cock, after the bird had lived in woods during winter, 

 was several times found stuffed with the foliage of the Polypodium 

 vulgare Linn, or common polypody. This is the only certain 

 instance that has occurred of any animal living upon a plant of the 

 fern kind in this country." 



It is certainly a strange feature in the history of this species that 

 it refuses to become naturalized in Ireland. Repeated attempts 

 have been made to introduce it into that country, but all have 

 signally failed. This singular fact is all the more to be wondered 

 at when it is borne in mind that the bird has become of late years 

 tolerably common in the south-west of Scotland. It wanders to 

 the very verge of the rocky headlands, Burrow Head and the Mull 

 of Galloway, and even to the heights above Portpatrick, whence 



