From Fox's Earth 



is moorland and hill incarnate. It excites ever so 

 fresh emotions calls up ever so delightful visions 

 leaves an unfading glow on the spirk. The 

 nearest relative is the willow grouse, of more 

 arctic climes. The cry is much the same ; the 

 eggs are indistinguishable. In one thing do 

 they differ. The willow grouse turns white in 

 winter, and at all times is paler hued. Charming 

 and sympathetic as the plumage is, in the natural 

 haunts of the bird, here it would be out of 

 place, and fatal. So that when the bird came to 

 Britain it changed into the red grouse. A ten- 

 dency to reversion is checked, and the hues are 

 kept toned to the sober mountain slopes. 



Feathers with their varied and exquisite touches 

 so rich at the shooting time when most seen 

 we owe to selective agents. They are the largesse 

 of an enemy of the individual, and a friend of the 

 cult. 



On the scant wages of a few birds, to vary the 

 diet, the work goes on ceaselessly, and with such 

 charming results. August by August, grouse 

 appear as they were, indistinguishable from the 

 background, in the delightful sympathy of toning. 

 Unaided, the background could not so tone them 

 to its hues, take them to itself. Of selective 

 agents the golden eagle is one. 



With head curved, he seems a speck. More 

 than one crouching covey baffles even his keen 

 eye ; so perfectly has the work been done. Even 



18 



