32 BLACK GROUSE. 



thriving and doing well, while no broods appear to have been produced; and Ave can 

 easily imagine the absence of the sprits or rushes in the localities referred to, to have 

 had considerable influence in the above-related negative results as to the Black Game 

 breeding in Ireland. It would be well if those who have the opportunity of doing so, 

 were to examine carefully the crops of young Black Game in all stages of their growth ; 

 and if this were well and carefully done, and properly recorded, there can be little doubt 

 that we should either soon see the Black Cock introduced into Ireland, or the fact of 

 the impossibility of adding such a desirable bird to the Irish Game List would be 

 proved by the existence of some natural and insuperable bar. We can scarcely think 

 that the somewhat peculiar climate of Ireland offers any absolute impediment to the 

 increase of the Black Grouse; were this the case, we should hardly find it regularly 

 breeding, as we do, in several of the mildest parts of England, such as the extreme 

 south of Devon, where the climate assimilates, in many respects, to that of the Green 

 Isle. 



Mr. Thompson hints that Great Britain may be the extreme western range of this fine 

 bird. Even if this were so naturally, we see no reason why the attempts to introduce 

 it artificially should necessarily be unsuccessful; at any rate, until the experiment has 

 been fully tried, by turning out the birds in districts where the natural productions are 

 similar, botanically, to those of the locality from which the birds are brought, the 

 question can hardly be said to be settled. As a matter of choice we should prefer 

 introducing into an open country, birds from a similar situation, in preference to those 

 that had been reared where wood was plentiful. 



Over the continent the Black Grouse is very generally distributed. In the north of 

 Europe it is found plentifully in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, and Siberia. It also 

 occurs in more or less abundance in Lapland, Holland, Poland, Germany, France, Italy, 

 and all through the timbered parts of the Alps. 



As an article of food the Black Grouse is generally much admired, though certainly 

 by no means equal to the Red Grouse. It is remarkable in having the greater and 

 lesser pectoral muscles of different colours; the outside or greater one being very dark, 

 while the lesser one, nearest the breast bone, is remarkably white, and is the favourite 

 part with the epicure. 



The habits of the Black Grouse, being less arboreal than those of the Capercaillie, lead 

 it to select such parts of wild and subalpine country as are naturally covered with a 

 thick brushwood of alder, birch, hazel, and willow, along with the rank and luxuriant 

 herbage, such as fern, reeds, rushes, and coarse grass, which is commonly found in such 

 situations. Such districts as the above are generally well supplied with marshy and 

 boggy ground, which appeal's to have special attractions for the Black Grouse. If to 

 these wo add wild and sequestered woody glens, not uncommon in such untamed districts, 



