AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



227 



birds, they are then so intent upon the victory in their own 

 battle, that they do not heed the approach of strangers. Not 

 only may all that are within the spread of a musket-shot be 

 killed at one shot, but they may be struck a second time 

 with a stick, so eager are they for victory among themselves. 

 The nests, like those of most of the gallinaceous birds, are 

 rude; the eggs are usually six or seven; they are of a yel- 

 lowish white, dotted with very minute ferruginous specks; 

 and about the size of those of the pheasant. The young 

 are produced rather late in the season, but as there is then 

 plenty of food, they grow rapidly. In their early stage 

 they follow the mother, and nestle under her wings in some 

 safe place during the night; but after about five weeks, they 

 have acquired so much strength and use of their wings as to 

 be able to perch along with her. As the winter sets in, the 

 different families leave their mothers, and the whole assem- 

 ble in flocks like the red grouse. They are never, so far as 

 our observation has gone, found, like those, even in the 

 margins of the cultivated fields, but continue in the moun- 

 tains during the winter; finding, as is supposed, their food 

 under the snow, and being also often found in their retreats 

 by beasts and birds of prey. 



When the snow begins to fall heavy, the black grouse 

 betake themselves to the shelter of tall heath, juniper, or 

 any other plant, that will afford them cover while the vio- 

 lent wind, with which falls of snow are usually accompained 

 in Alpine districts, lasts; or they roost under the thick bran- 

 ches of the pines, in situations where they have access to 

 these. Even upon the pines, the snow forms a close canopy, 

 which lasts for a considerable time, while below there is a 

 sufficiency of air for the breathing of the bird. In the shel- 

 ter of the bushes they are obliged, like the white hares and 

 other inhabitants of the mountains, to open breathing holes 

 for themselves; and while they are pent up in their habita- 

 tions of snow, the tops of the heather, or leaves of the bush, 

 find them in food. When the surface becomes hard [which 

 it does in no great length of time after the fall of snow is 

 over, in consequence of the softening of the surface by the 

 action of the sun, and the congealing of it again at night, till 

 it is converted into a crust of smooth ice, and reflects off the 

 greater part of the solar heat obliquely, as the rays then fall 

 upon the surface] those breathing holes often betray their 

 inmates to the ravages of predatory birds and quadrupeds. 

 The mountain-eagles and hawks then fly over the snowy 

 surface, and beat in the same manner for these holes, as they 

 do for the birds themselves when there is no snow upon the 

 ground; and the four-footed ravager, that then find an easy 

 passage along the hard surface, join in the spoil. Man 

 sometimes also takes a part in it, but much less frequently, 

 because there are concealed holes and precipices under the 

 snow, which are full of danger. 



But the winds by which the falls of snow in the Aloine 

 countries are accompanied, though they render these formi- 

 dable to the animals, whether quadruped or bird, while they 

 last, and fatal to man if he be overtaken by them late in the 

 day and far from his home, have yet their uses, and tend in 

 some measure to the preservation of life. Some portions 

 toward the windward are left bare, or at any rate with the 

 tops of the heath and other plants above the surface, and the 

 vigorous find their way to these, and subsist on them till 

 other parts of the surface be clear. When, however, the 

 snow falls in continued storms, and especially with the 

 wind from opposite points during the different falls, the suf- 

 ferings of the creatures are extreme: first, those that live on 

 vegetables, perish through suffocation or of hunger, and 

 then the carnivorous ones, which can in general subsist 

 longer without food, follow in their turn; and when the 

 snow clears away, the raven cotnes to enjoy the spoils of 

 both. 



These are but a few of the inhabitants of the moor; but 

 moor means so many different kinds of country, according 

 to the situation in which it is placed, that there is no possi- 

 bility of including in a short space the characters that are 

 common to all. There are comparatively few quadrupeds 

 peculiar to such situations, and the number of insects is not 

 great; the plants, too, though more abundant and more nu- 

 merous in their species, are not those that are the most strik- 

 ing in their appearance, or the most interesting in their pro- 

 perties. 



Alpine hares are sometimes found in the more elevated 

 parts of the higher moors, and the common hare in the low- 

 er parts of those that are near the cultivated grounds; but 

 the only quadrupeds which can be considered as natives, 

 and permanent inhabitants of the moors in any part of 

 Britain, are deer; and they properly fall into the descrip- 

 tion of a more limited and peculiar description of scenery. 

 We must, therefore, even though the subject be merely be- 

 gun, close our account of this division of the surface of our 

 country. There are other circumstances connected with it 

 in common with other places, to which we can afterwards 

 advert with more effect. What has been mentioned will 

 tend to show that, even in one of its departments, that por- 

 tion of the earth's surface which, on account of its flatness 

 and its sterility, is the least pleasing or promising, is yet 

 fraught with lessons of the greatest importance, if we would 

 only pause and read them. Nor even when the moor has 

 advanced one step further, and become a desart in the burn- 

 ing climate, or a peat-bog in the cold and marshy one, can 

 we dare to say, that it is without its usefulness. The peat- 

 bog is the coal-field of future times, and the waste of Zahara 

 must have its use, or it would not have existence. 



British Naturalist, 



