THE RED GROUSE. 317 



which have, comparatively, few other inhabitants ; and 

 while they do this, they place the birds in the very 

 situation where man can preserve them most securely 

 from other destroyers. 



The grown-cock is about fifteen inches long, and 

 twenty-three in the expansion of the wings ; but as the 

 majority of those that are bagged by the sportsmen in 

 the season, are poults or young ones, the full-grown 

 bird is not often met with, except " on whirring wings," 

 as Burns most accurately expresses it, on his native 

 heather. The general colour is a very red chestnut brown, 

 barred and spotted with black, with a circle of white 

 round each eye, and a spot of the same at the root of 

 the lower mandible. The carbuncles on the eyelids are 

 prominent, of a very bright scarlet, and fringed along 

 the upper edges. The feathers of the tail are black, 

 but the four middle ones are finely banded with red, 

 and the lateral ones are tipped with rich reddish 

 brown. The quill feathers of the wings are of a dusky 

 colour, and there is about the whole covering of the 

 bird that rich gloss, by which gallinaceous birds are so 

 generally characterised. The tarsi, and even the toes, 

 are covered with ashen-coloured feathers, as fine and 

 delicate as hair. The hen-grouse is rather smaller in 

 size, and has the colours less bright, and the gloss less 

 brilliant, with the carbuncles on the upper eye-lids 

 small and pale ; and the poults are much lighter in 

 their colours than the full-grown birds, and not un- 

 frequently mottled with white. 



As soon as the pairing season commences, for, con- 

 trary to the habits of the black grouse, they do pair, 

 the cocks make the moors ring with their amorous 

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