430 BRITISH BIRDS. 



the nest varies. It is always placed on the ground, usually in the long 

 heather, often near a clump of very tall ling or near a protruding rock. 

 The edge of a patch of moor where the heath has been burnt off a year or 

 two previously is a favourite place, and an oasis of heather which has 

 escaped the general conflagration is a still more likely locality to find the 

 nest of a Grouse. The motives which guide them in their choice of a ^ite 

 for their nest seem to be merely the selection of a place where the bird and 

 eggs will be concealed and sheltered by the long heather, and one that can 

 easily be recognized by themselves. The Red Grouse can scarcely be said 

 to make a nest ; it merely scratches a slight hollow in the ground, and 

 such materials, twigs of heather, dry moss, or grass, leaves, &c., as happen 

 to be on the spot are allowed to tumble in as lining. The Red Grouse has 

 never been known to cover its eggs before leaving the nest, as the Phea- 

 sant and Partridge are in the habit of doing. 



The number of eggs laid by the Red Grouse seems to vary with the 

 propitiousness or otherwise of the season. In -very wet and cold springs 

 the smallest clutches contain four or five, and the largest eight or 

 nine, whilst in very favourable seasons the small clutches are six or 

 seven, and the larger ones from ten to twelve, or even fifteen and seven- 

 teen ; but in the latter cases it is probable that the eggs may not all be 

 the produce of one bird. In an average year most nests will contain 

 seven or eight eggs. Birds which breed late on the high grounds do not 

 seem to lay fewer eggs than those which breed early in the more shel- 

 tered situations. The sitting bird does not easily forsake her eggs. You 

 may watch her daily as she sits upon them ; you may even catch her eye 

 without frightening her away. You may send her off cuk-cok-cokking in 

 alarm, by accidentally almost stumbling over the nest ; and you may 

 handle the eggs without much danger of causing her to " forsake." Game- 

 keepers are always very anxious to impress upon trespassers the fact that 

 it is of the utmost importance not to disturb the birds during the breeding- 

 season. The real truth is, that if strangers were allowed on the moors at 

 this season of the year, the danger would be, not that the birds would 

 forsake the eggs, but that the eggs would forsake the birds. 



The eggs are not subject to much variation; they are usually 175 

 inch in length and 1-33 inch in breadth, and of an almost uniform oval 

 shape, the smaller end being scarcely more pointed than the larger. 

 Exceptions to this rule are, however, occasionally met with. Towards the 

 end of May 1864 or 1865 (I remember it was Derby-day) I found a nest 

 of Grouse during a heavy snowstorm, containing five eggs, which would 

 probably have hatched the following day; they measured 1-82 inch in 

 leno-th by 1'33 inch in breadth, and, as might be expected in eggs that 

 were longer and narrower than usual, were much more pointed at the 

 small end than is usually the case. The ground-colour of the egg is 



