330 VERTEBRATE EAUNA OE LAKELAND 



high hills of Westmorland and Cumberland, but had been 

 extinct for a long time : ' though attempts have been repeatedly- 

 made to introduce it to these localities, they have hitherto been 

 without success.' The exciting cause of these remarks was the 

 fact that ' last week Mr, B. Hawkrigg of Sawrey shot four of 

 these rare birds on the hills between Windermere and Esthwaite 

 which are supposed to have been bred in the plantations of H. 

 Curwen, Esq. ; but how they came to take up their abode in 

 this locality must remain a mystery. We understand that 

 there are four of the brood still left, and that strict orders have 

 been given for their preservation.' The subject is referred to 

 again in 1849: 'Five or six years ago some of these birds 

 appeared rather mysteriously in this district, and now they have 

 spread for miles on every side. Some have been shot, and fine 

 game they are, equal to any ever brought from Scotland. The 

 Green Hows, belonging to Mr. Sandys, has a brood or two ; 

 the Dalepark Fell, belonging to B. Harrison, Esq., two or three 

 broods ; Hawkshead Moor contains a few, and the hills in Claife 

 have some also. With a little care they may become numerous.' 



Writing to the Zoologist in 1850, Mr. Pearson ventures some 

 remarks on the supposed immigration of these birds : ' The 

 nearest locality where I have heard of any is Mell-fell, a round 

 wooded hill at Matterdale in Cumberland, and more than 

 twenty miles from where they were first seen with us. The 

 rugged and lofty barrier of the Lake mountains also intervenes : 

 still it is probable that they came from thence ; for we have no 

 Black Grouse within the same distance, either to the east, west, 

 or south of us.' This hypothesis falls to the ground, if we 

 admit the much stronger probability of these birds making their 

 way to Sawrey from the Eusland valley. 



Mr. Pearson wrote in 1850 that black game then existed 'at 

 Cock Hag betwixt Crook and Under barrow, in the extensive 

 larch woods at Lamb How in Crosthwaite ; and on the summit 

 of Whitbarrow, a detached limestone mountain, presenting a 

 grand rock escarpment to the lake tourist, as he approaches 

 from Milnthorpe. Perhaps they are most numerous in the 

 larch forest on the heights of Cartmell fell. In the woods of 

 Furness fells, on the western side of the lake, they are also as 





