THE RED GROUSE. 



Lagopus scoticus, Latham. 

 Plate 55. 



Confined entirely to our islands, this truly British species is plentiful on ground 

 suited to its habits in many parts of England and Wales, being more numerous 

 in the northern counties, whilst it abounds on the hill-sides and heathery moors 

 of Scotland, from the sea-coast up to the Ptarmigan ground on the mountains. 

 In Ireland it is less in evidence, chiefly owing to the want of protection. 



The nest, composed of small sticks, grass, or moss, is placed in a slight hollow 

 under branching heather or tufts of grass, and usually holds from seven to twelve, 

 or occasionally more, eggs, creamy-white in ground-colour blotched with rich 

 reddish-brown. 



The staple food of the Red Grouse on most moors consists of the green shoots 

 of the common heather or ling, the bell-heather and cross-leaved heath, besides 

 the fruit and leaves of other plants, and the seeds of grass and rushes. The out- 

 lying oat-fields are a great temptation to the birds in autumn, when they visit 

 the stooks in large numbers, and I have found that the best means of studying 

 the grouse at close quarters is to conceal oneself in a hiding-place among the 

 sheaves, when they will approach within a few feet, or even alight on the straw 

 above the watcher's head. I have noticed on one of these occasions how terrified 

 the birds become on the approach of a Peregrine Falcon, when they will crouch 

 low down among the stubble, well aware of the danger of any attempt to escape 

 by flight, and of the Falcon's dislike to attack her quarry on the ground. 



In winter, when the higher feeding grounds are often covered with frozen snow, 

 which cuts off their food supply, the birds suffer accordingly, and migrate in large 

 packs from the higher moors to less exposed situations. 



The loud, cheery call of the cock Grouse, often heard at dawn as the bird stands 

 on a stone or grassy hillock, beginning with what may be syllabled as kok, kok, 

 kok, and ending with gobak, gobak, gobak, is a characteristic sound on the moors 

 in early spring. 



Apart from man, the Red Grouse has many enemies, the Hooded Crows causing 



great destruction to their eggs and young, while the Peregrine and Golden Eagle 



also take their toll of the older or sickly birds, but the depredations of the nobler 



birds of prey are no doubt beneficial in some measure, as the well-known and much 



discussed Grouse disease is probably due to overcrowding. 



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