THE RED GROUSE. 



He who would wish to observe the Red Grouse in 

 his natural haunt, must leave the lowland districts and 

 direct his attention to the upland wilds. Here he meets 

 Nature in all her wild and solemn grandeur. He sees 

 the mountains in rugged majesty send their heads to the 

 skies ; he wanders amidst the rocky crags, hurled from 

 above, like mighty 



Fragments of an earlier world ; 



he threads his perilous way over the marshy tracts 

 and on the borders of the mountain currents, mayhap 

 pondering over his nothingness and the scarcity of 

 animal life. Now wandering over the interminable 

 stretch of heath, he starts the Twite from its lowly bed, 

 and it utters its complaining note and retires still further 

 into the wild ; or he hears the Curlew's piping call, as on 



