48 tetraonidjE. 



2 oz. On the rocky parts they were of a very much lighter 

 brown; while on the stony and heathy ground combined they 

 were of an intermediate brown, mottled more or less with white. 



On the range of the Belfast mountains, rising to nearly 1,600 

 feet in altitude, the grouse still maintains its ground. In the 

 evenings of summer and autumn, when taking a favourite walk to 

 the mountain ridge to behold the grand and varied prospect on 

 every side, — above all to watch the down-going of the sun behind 

 the distant mountains on the farther side of Lough Neagh, and 

 see the great expanse of waters steeped in the most lovely hues, — 

 the crowing of the grouse has almost invariably enlivened my 

 walk home. To my ear the call is delightful, from its association 

 with the wildness of nature. When undisturbed at such times, 

 the alarm note, well known to sportsmen as a repetition of " the 

 syllable kolc," was rarely heard ; but the crowing which is admi- 

 rably represented by the words " go, go, go, go, go hack, go bach"* 

 was continued for a long time, commencing, at the end of iiugust 

 and during September, about half an hour after sunset, and con- 

 tinuing sometimes for nearly an hour. During one of these 

 walks, in the month of June, a pointer dog was inconsiderately 

 allowed to follow me, and by his trespassing on the breeding 

 haunts of the grouse, lapwing, and snipe, he caused a continued 

 uproar from the three species, akin to what we hear from the 

 various birds on the sea-shore. 



As observed by Mr. Poole, when on a pedestrian excursion 

 among the Comeragh mountains (Waterford), " ' Go back, go 

 back, go back/ was repeated as well and as distinctly by this 

 bird as man could utter it, and in such wild and dangerous 

 solitudes it sounds hke a warning from some supernatural being, 

 which, if timid, one feels more than half inclined to take." 

 There were lately, for a considerable period, in the aviary of the 

 Royal Botanic Garden, Belfast, two male grouse from which these 



* Macgillivray's 'Brit. Birds,' vol. i. p. 181, where it is added that "the Celts 

 naturally imagining the moor-cock to speak Gaelic, interpret it as signifying co, co, 

 co, co, mo-cMaidh, mo-chlaidh ; that is, who, who (goes there ?), my sword, my 

 sword I" 



