428 BRITISH BIRDS. 



TETRAO SCOTICUS. 

 RED GROUSE. 



(Plate 20.) 



Lagopus bonasa scotica, Briss. Orn. i. p. 199 (] 760). 



Tetrao scoticus, Lath. Gen. Syn. Snppl. i. p. 290 (1787) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



— Temminck, ( VieiUot), {Degland ^ Oerbe), {Dresser), {Saunders), &c. 

 Tetrao lagopus, var. y, Gmel. Syst. Nat. ii. p. 750 (1788). 

 Lagopus scoticus {Briss.), Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. SfC. Brit. Mus. p. 27 (1816). 

 Oreias scoticus {Briss.), Kaup, Naturl. Syst. p. 177 (1829). 

 Tetrao saliceti scoticus {Briss.), ScMegel, Bev. Crit. pp. Ixzyi, 89 (1844). 



The Red Grouse^ or, as it is locally called^ tlie Moor-fowl, Brown Ptar- 

 migan, or Gor-cockj is, par excellence, the national bird of Great Britain, 

 being the only species which is only found in the British Islands. It is a 

 resident bird, and is found on all extensive moorlands throughout Great 

 Britain and Ireland, except in those counties of England which lie south 

 or east of a line drawn from Bristol to Hull. It is found throughout 

 the Hebrides and the Orkneys, but does not occur on Shetland. On 

 the continent the Red Grouse is represented by the Willow-Grouse . 

 {Tetrao albus), which differs from its British ally in assuming, like the 

 Ptarmigan, a white winter plumage, which is retained on the primary and 

 secondary wing-feathers at all seasons of the year. The Willow-Grouse is 

 a circumpolar bird, inhabiting the arctic tundras of Europe, Asia, and 

 America above the pine-regions * ; but, unlike its British representative, 

 it is very fond of perching in trees, especially preferring to roost in them, 

 and is only found where birch or willows occur. 



The Red Grouse is confined to the moors, which are hilly tracts of 

 country, for the most part peat and rock^ the former profusely covered 

 with ling. They abound in springs, which form mountain-streams in the 

 lower gorges, or produce bogs in the wider valleys and plateaux, where the 

 ling is often overpowered with a rank growth of rushes, carices, and coarse 

 grasses. The rocks are often millstone grit, and sometimes are huge 

 isolated masses, but in Yorkshire generally appear as a range of perpen- 

 dicular cliffs locally called " edges." The peaks and ridges above these 



* Howard Saunders has an example of tUs bird from the Caucasus. The evidence in 

 favour of its having been shot in the district, and not been imported in a frozen state from 

 the north, appears to be incontestable, were it not for the fact that the alleged date can 

 scarcely be true. It is labelled May ; but as many of the white feathers are in' the pen, 

 it must have been killed in late autumn. 



