200 VARIETIES OF GROUSE 



reward his perseverance. In this manner, during the 

 month of September, I have toiled for hours over bog 

 and heather, and up to the mountain-top, resting a while 

 on some huge dismembered crag, whilst discussing the 

 remains of my wallet and whiskey-flask, and then on 

 again ; and if at the end of the day I could produce six 

 or seven brace of grouse, they were hardly earned and 

 duly prized. But this was in the days of " auld lang 

 syne," before the grand battue system began. In these 

 luxurious times loading and firing are the great exertion ; 

 in fact, the present system of shooting may be likened 

 to chopping cubs in covert without a gallop. 



In every rural sport give me first the bodily and health- 

 imparting exercise which, bracing, invigorating, and 

 purifying of its superfluities the whole corporeal system, 

 gives cheerfulness to the heart and vigour to the 

 frame. 



Of the grouse species we have four varieties — the 

 capercailzie, or great cock of the woods, the black cock, 

 the red or common grouse, and the ptarmigan. The two 

 former resemble the pheasant in the habit of perching on 

 trees ; the red grouse, which are the most numerous, 

 roost like the partridge, on the ground, and are found in 

 many counties in England and Wales, as well as Scotland. 

 The ptarmigan are seldom met with below the Highlands. 

 It is much to be regretted that this magnificent bird, 

 the cock of the woods, which in weight and size so nearly 

 approaches the turkey, should have been allowed to fade 

 away almost out of sight in Scotland, as the bustard has 

 in England. For the disappearance of the latter there 

 is at least a good cause, — the spread of cultivation on 

 the downs ; but in the sister country greater facilities 

 than ever exist for the protection and preservation of the 



