32 GROUSE SHOOTING. 



is still plentiful in England, Scotland, and in Ireland. 

 It is found in the northern counties of England, and 

 in most of the Scottish islands, as well as the conti- 

 nent of that kingdom. It was formerly abundantly 

 spread over the more southerly districts of North 

 Britain; hut the sportsman of modern days must 

 now intrench himself in the Highlands, whither 

 cultivation has not yet extended : and in the most 

 remote parts of these, such as the Cairngorm range, 

 Sutherland, and the highlands of Rosse, he will still 

 find the red grouse nearly unchanged in hahits and 

 disposition. There he is still the continuous inha 

 hitant of the moor ; still, as it were, the indigenous 

 creation of the land of rock and heather, of lake and 

 glen. There, at dawn, shall he be tracked by his 

 loud shrill call; and there, at set of sun, shall his 

 note enliven the picturesque solitude. In summer, 

 it is true, the curlew's whistle, and the mournful cry 

 of the golden plover, may vary the monotony of the 

 grouse's call ; but in winter he shall seem, with the 

 red deer, the only animate thing for miles around. 

 Here it is not fearful, as in the cultivated districts ; 

 nor, until warned by the gun, will it become wild 

 and w T ary, but permit the approach of man unremarked 

 but by the peculiar note which is probably one of 

 warning to his family. When cultivation advances 

 into the moors, either wholly or in part, its ordinary 

 effect is observed in the retiring of the game, in 

 thinning their numbers, and in an alteration of the 

 habits of the birds and their choice of food. In the 



