38 TETRAONID.E. 



following note on the 20th of August, after returning from the first 

 day's black game shooting : — the information was chiefly derived from 

 my host. 



" Within twenty years a black grouse was an extraordinary sight in 

 the neighbourhood of Ballantrae ; and, still later, not more than one or 

 two individuals would be met with during a season's shooting. When 

 first there myself, in the autumn of 1828, 1 saw numbers of these birds 

 chiefly about the corn-fields adjacent to the mountains, since which 

 time they have been gradually increasing, and of late years have be- 

 come abundant. This is doubtless attributable to the great increase 

 of cultivation, or the growth of corn in the vicinity of the moors ; for 

 with its augmentation that of the black game has proportionally kept 

 pace. Within the period alluded to a vast quantity of mountain-land 

 has been brought under cultivation in this district. 



" In grouse ground we met with two or three small packs of black 

 game to-day ; but one pack was quite below the moor, and on looking 

 to the crop Of a young cock killed there I found it filled with the 

 flowers of all the plants which grew around : — among them were those 

 of the eye-bright {Euphrasia officinalis) , mountain chickweeds (Cerastia), 

 Ranunculi, Carices ; but in quantity much exceeding the others were 

 those of the autumnal hawk-bit, (Apargia autumnalis) . To my veteran 

 companion, who has shot here for about twenty seasons successively, 

 this plant has long been known as a favourite food of the young black 

 game. In addition to the flowers, were many leaves of a small willow, 

 every one of which taken from the bird was infested with an insect 

 nidus, but its presence was probably accidental. It is in the evening 

 chiefly that the black grouse resorts to the corn-fields, and- it does this 

 when the grain is green, as well as when ripe. Both black and red 

 grouse, killed in the course of the day late in the autumn, are not un- 

 frequently found, when opened, to contain oats exclusively, which have 

 been purloined in the early morning.* The farmers in this part of 



* Mr. Colquhoun, in his work already quoted, states, from the circumstance of 

 heather never having been found in any black grouse opened by him, that the species 

 never eats it ; but this will not apply generally, as proved in the case of birds ex- 

 amined by myself. Examples shot in Scotland, and set up by bird preservers in Belfast, 

 are alone alluded to. They were ten in number, and shot from October to Februaiy in 

 different years. Oct. — A female was tilled with the twigs of heath and other plants ; a 

 male contained a large portion of the tops of heath (Calluna vulgaris) ; many of the 

 withered flowers of the devil's-bit (Scabiosa succisa) ; a few of those of Composite ; 



