THE BLACK GROUSE. 39 



Ayrshire often complain of the damage done to their crops by these 

 species, and more especially by the black grouse. In reference 

 to the common error that this bird increases at the expense of the red 

 game, it may be stated that in this county the numbers of the latter 

 have in consequence suffered no diminution. Although the two 

 species are occasionally found in the same haunts — grey hens and 

 red grouse sometimes being before the dog at the same "point" — 

 their places of abode are generally different. In the autumn of 1837 

 my friend first saw the hens of the black game packed there, when 

 fourteen or fifteen appeared together. He has seen so many as seventy 

 black cocks in company. 



May, Jan. 1849. — When beating the covers about Ardimersy for 

 woodcocks, on the first two or three days of this month before frost com- 

 menced, great numbers of grey-hens were sprung, and after a few days 

 of frost many black-cocks also, the latter having previously been among 

 the heath of the mountains. The black game season being over accord- 

 ing to law on the 10th of Dec, we could not legally shoot any of 

 these birds ; although it would have been a very satisfactory way of 

 obtaining them, when beating for woodcocks at the same time. We 

 could not but consider how much better it were, as a general law, that 

 the black game shooting should commence from four to six weeks later 

 than the 20th of August, and continue so much longer after the 10th of 

 December : — the period allowed for shooting them is perhaps long- 

 enough. That it commences too early both for them and red 

 grouse, genuine sportsmen — (those who will not raise their guns to 

 shoot miserable " pouts," although these do count as well as full- 

 grown birds in the report of number killed) — who have been accus- 



the flower of a Ranunculus ; tops of the leaves of the greater plantain {Plantago 

 lanceolata) ; and a few seeds of grasses. Nov. — One filled with oats ; another with 

 portions of a woody plant, perhaps heath ; a third (black-cock) wholly filled with the 

 tops of heath (Calluna), except a few bits of the stem of the cranberry {Vaccinium 

 oxycoccos) and leaves of Scabiosa succisa. Jan. — Black-cock filled with tops of 

 heath {Call una) except a few flower-buds of the hazel; a second with oats and the 

 tops of heath, which apparently had given a pink tinge to the grain longest in the 

 stomach ; a third filled with flower buds of hazel and birch, together with a few green 

 tops of herbaceous plants ; a fourth entirely filled with yellowish-green woody matter, 

 probably of the bilberry {Vaccinium myrtillus) ; as the only perfect pieces of the 

 stem were of that plant .• — heath seems to be the cause of a reddish-tinge being im- 

 parted to the whole matter in the stomachs of red-grouse. Feb. — Black-cock wholly 

 filled with the male flowers of the hazel in an unexpanded state. Fragments of stoue 

 were in all the gizzards. 



