RED GROUSE. 5 J 



"Instead of sparing the birds where they are attacked by this epidemic, I should be 

 much more inclined to shoot down every Grouse in the infected parts of the hills- and 

 I would continue to do this as long as any appearance of the disease remained. I would 

 then give them a year or two of rest, according to the numbers and appearance of the 

 birds. This seems to me the most likely way to check the destruction caused by what 

 the keepers call the 'Grouse disease.' " 



In any future epidemic of this kind, it would be well if the weather previously, and 

 during its continuance, were carefully noted, as to wetness or dryness. Reasoning l a 

 priori.' we should say that a wet summer would be likely to induce such an epidemic. 



In tone of colouring the Eed Grouse varies considerably; thus in some districts all 

 the Grouse are dark, while in others they are light coloured. There is strong probability 

 that these varieties are a wise provision of Providence, by which the birds assimilate 

 their colours to those of the ground they frequent. Mr. W. Thompson was of this opinion 

 and mentions that "a friend who shot over the moor of Glenroy, Invernesshire. in 

 1844, observed that the Grouse differed much in their plumage, and were of three 

 varieties, each keeping particularly to its own quarters. On the darkest and most heathy 

 ground were the darkest birds, and the largest, weighing generally two pounds, and 

 sometimes two pounds two ounces. On the rocky parts they were of a very much lighter 

 brown; while on the stony and heathy ground combined, they were of an intermediate 

 brown, mottled more or less with white." 



These differences in tint can hardly be called varieties, in the usual meaning attached 

 to the term, but those bred upon the moors of Blanchland, in the county of Durham, 

 as mentioned by Mr. Selby, and which are of a cream-colour, or light gray, spotted 

 more or less with dark brown and black, and occur in considerable numbers, are true 

 varieties; and it is to be regretted that the breed is not allowed to increase more than 

 seems to be the case. Sir W. Jardine possesses "a Grouse, shot on the moors of Galloway, 

 where the ground colour is nearly yellowish white, and all the dark markings are 

 represented by pale reddish brown : the quills are dirty white. In some instances the 

 plumage takes an opposite shade, and is remarkable for its deep tint, and the almost 

 entire absence of markings. The whole, or a part of the quills, are often found white." 

 A cream-coloured Grouse was shot, says Mr. Archibald Jerdon, in Northumberland, in 

 August, 1843; the markings were similar to those on the common Grouse; the ground 

 colour being a cream or light brownish white, and the markings of the same colour, 

 but darker. The quills and greater wing coverts were a bluish gray, as was also the 

 abdomen. It was a young bird. 



The adult male Red Grouse has the bill black; nostrils covered by small red and 

 black feathers that hide half the bill: irides, hazel; over each eye is a naked semilunar 

 patch of bright scarlet skin, fringed at the edge; there is a white spot on each side of 



