332 VERTEBRATE EAUNA OF LAKELAND 



have been in very general use, but Machell uses it. So vast 

 and so remote were the unreclaimed wastes of Lakeland that 

 persecution failed to affect its numbers seriously; hence Dr. 

 Heysham and Richardson both record that there were plenty of 

 Grouse upon our moors, while the blue Hen Harrier still 

 quartered the wide expanse of Spadeadam Waste. It may be 

 well to point out that the descendants of the primeval race of 

 Grouse, that crowed among the heather, when Beavers built 

 their dams upon our rivers, and Wolves ravened in the forests 

 which then clothed the sides of the Lake Mountains, supplied 

 the first Grouse sent out to the Antipodes. It was Mr. John 

 Boustead of Armathwaite Hall, near Cockermouth, who 

 despatched five brace of Grouse to New Zealand in 1870. 

 Unfortunately only one bird reached its destination alive. 

 Far from being discouraged by this misadventure, Mr. Boustead 

 had eleven and a half brace of birds taken from Binsey, and 

 reared by hand, in 1872 ; this instalment was shipped for the 

 Colony in November of the same year. There was nothing 

 very unusual in the birds being reared in confinement. Daniel 

 mentions that 'in 1809 Mr. William Routledge, of Oakshaw, in 

 Bewcastle, Cumberland, had in his possession a pair of Red 

 Grouse completely domesticated, and which had so far forgotten 

 their natural food as to prefer corn and crumbs of bread to the 

 tops and seeds of heather.' x Grouse are always partial to corn, 

 and their dietary is perhaps rather varied than is sometimes 

 supposed. A hen Grouse, shot near Alston in October 1888, 

 had her stomach distended with food, consisting of fresh heather 

 tops, grass seeds, and ripe blaeberries. Fine grit is required 

 for the proper digestion of such food, and the birds have some- 

 times suffered for want of it. Writing from Alston on the 16 th 

 of April 1837, John Borrow informed T. C. Heysham that 'in 

 consequence of the Grouse in some parts of this neighbourhood 

 having been unable to procure sand (owing to the depth of 

 snow), they have picked up particles of the Sulphate of Barites, 

 which appears to have been the cause of a very great mortality 

 among them. A person whom I can depend on assures me he 

 saw not less than 40 brace dead upon the Moors a few days 

 ] Rural Sports. 



