248 grous. 



Red Game, Moorcock, Gorcock, Ran, 54. A. 3. Will. Engl. 177. Alb. i. pi. 23. 24. 

 Red Grous, Gen. Syn. iv. 746. Id. Sup. 216. Br. Zool. i. No. 94. pi. 43. M/o/. 



85. pi. M- 3. Id. Ed. 1812. i. p. 356. pi. 57. Flor. Scot. i. p. 22. Bewick, i. 



pi. p. 301. Lewin, Birds, pi. 135. Id. pi. xxi. 2. — the egg. Walcot, Birds, ii. 



pi. 183. Rural Sports, ii. pi. p. 416. Orn. Diet. Sf Sup. Graves, Br. Orn. ii. 



THE length of this bird is about sixteen inches, and the weight 

 nineteen or twenty ounces. Bill black ; over the nostrils red and 

 black feathers ; irides hazel ; above the eye a naked, fringed, red 

 membrane ; head and neck pale tawny red, with several bars of 

 black ; back and scapulars deeper, with a large black spot on the 

 middle of each feather ; breast and belly dull purplish brown, 

 crossed with numerous narrow dusky lines; quills dusky; tail com- 

 posed of sixteen feathers, even at the end, the four middle ones 

 barred with red, the others black ; legs covered to the claws with 

 soft white feathers; claws whitish, broad and strong. 



The female is smaller; the colours less bright than in the male, 

 and the naked red part over the eye less conspicuous. 



We are inclined to think, with Mr. Pennant, that this bird is 

 peculiar to the British Islands; is very plentiful on all the waste 

 grounds and Mountains of Cumberland; also common in Yorkshire, 

 Lancashire, and Wales ; likewise on the moors in the Islands of 

 Scotland ; but never approaches southward, nearer than Stafford- 

 shire. It lays from six to ten eggs, which are not unlike those of 

 the Ptarmigan, but more elongated ; the ground colour pale rufous, 

 with blotches of the colour of dragon's blood, of irregular shapes 

 and sizes, the largest at the smaller end, and some minute specks 

 of the same intermixed. These birds pair in spring, and the young 

 brood follow the hen the whole summer; in the winter join in flocks 

 of forty or fifty, and become remarkably shy and wild ; and always 

 keep on the tops of the hills, being rarely found on the sides, and 

 never descending into the vallies ; they chiefly feed on the mountain 

 berries, and tops of heath. This species is very plentiful among 

 the mountains and bogs of Ireland, and in some of the western Isles. 



