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MOOR FOWL. 



mon in Yorkshire, and from thence northward upon the moor lands ; 

 but no where so plentiful as in the highlands of Scotland, where the 

 moors are unbounded. 



It is also found on the western islands, and in the mountains and 

 bogs of Ireland ; but it is remarkable that these birds should seem to 

 be confined to these kingdoms. Linnaeus did not seem to be acquainted 

 with the species, and Gmelin has given it as a variety of the ptarmigan. 

 Buffbn speaks of a white variety which he names L'Altagas blanc, and 

 says it is found about the mountains of Switzerland, and those of 

 Vicenza. But there is little doubt this is the ptarmigan. 



The Moor Fowl never resort to woods, but confine themselves wholly 

 to the open moors, building their nests — if a few withered stems, placed 

 carelessly together, deserve that appellation in a tuft of heath ; they 

 feed on the mountain and bog berries, and, in defect of these, on the 

 tops of the heath. 



It lays from eight to fourteen eggs, much like those of the black 

 cock, but smaller. The young keep with the parent birds till towards 

 winter, and are called a pack or brood ; in November they flock toge- 

 ther in greater numbers, sometimes thirty or forty, where they are 

 plentiful, at which time they are extremely shy, and difficult to be shot. 



We never remember but one instance of its being found at a dis- 

 tance from the moors. This was a female, taken alive near Wedhamp- 

 ton, in Wiltshire, in the winter of 1794, and communicated by the 

 late Edward Poore, Esq., who shewed us a part of the bird. By what 

 unaccountable accident it should have been driven to so great a dis- 

 tance from its native moors, is difficult to say, as the nearest place to 

 this which they are known to inhabit is the south of Wales, a distance 

 in a straight line not less than sixty miles. 



*In severe winters moor game comes lower down the mountains in Scot- 

 land, and they flock together in prodigious numbers ; in 1782 and 1783, 

 according to Thornton, three or four thousand assembled. The same 

 author, in his sporting marches, encamped at the source of the Dalmon, 

 at the foot of an immense hill, called Croke Franc. " The game on 

 these moors," says he, " is innumerable. In a mile long, and not half 

 a one broad, I saw at least one thousand brace of moor game." Such 

 days of plenty will scarcely ever be seen again ; since the communica- 

 tion between the two countries has been facilitated by good roads, ready 

 conveyance, and excellent accommodation, parties have been continually 

 formed in England to make sporting tours in the Highlands of Scot- 

 land, and slaughter is the word. Daniel informs us that, at Mr. Grier- 

 son's, of Rathfarnham, county of Dublin, in 1802, a brace of Moor Fowl, 



