50 TETRAONlDiE. 



off. Fortunately, this bird breeds a second time, if the first nest 

 be destroyed. 



The grouse is occasionally subject to variety in colour. One 

 shot in November 1826 by the Bev. Lord Edward Chichester, 

 near Doagh, in the county of Antrim, was pure white, with the 

 exception of the two outer primaries, and an equal number of the 

 feathers of the greater wing-coverts, which remained unchanged. 

 It was a large and healthy-looking bird. 



For the fact that the grouse is a good bird for the table, we have 

 no less an authority than that of the illustrious John Locke ! In 

 the life of this philosopher by his descendant, Lord King, are 

 directions, &c. from Locke, apparently addressed to some foreigner 

 about to visit England, one sentence of which is — " Eailes and 

 heath-joolts, ruffs and reeves, are excellent meat wherever they can 

 be met with." — Page 134. 



My friend John Sinclaire, Esq. of Belfast, who has been a 

 regular grouse-shooter for upwards of sixty years, has not only 

 found grouse, occasionally in stubble and grass fields a mile distant 

 from the mountain heath about Ballantrae, Ayrshire, but has 

 sprung them from the heath growing in plantations of young 

 trees about fifteen feet in height. He attributes the scarcity of 

 grouse in many places to the increase of sheep pasturing. The 

 nests of this bird are trodden on by the sheep : the burning of 

 the heath on account of the latter, even if practised at a proper 

 season, deprives the grouse of shelter for some years ; and by its 

 frequently being carried into execution in the early spring, 

 destroys their eggs. Where horned cattle are pastured, grouse 

 are considered to be as numerous as ever. The black game, breed- 

 ing as it does in marshy places, is not subjected to the casualties 

 just noticed ; hence one reason of the decrease of the former, and 

 increase of the latter, in some districts. From the manner in 

 which a pack of grouse springs, it is rarely that more than 

 two fall to the one barrel, and when three do so, it is considered 

 extraordinary. Before the gun of my friend — an excellent shot 

 — this number has fallen ; he has twice obtained, by a double 



