194 BLACK GROUSE 
later." Both species became extinct about the same time, 
but the Black-game apparently somewhat earlier. As the 
Act of 1835 states that there were then no ‘ Moor-fowl, 
Heath-fowl, or Grouse’ on the island, we must put back 
this date a little, or suppose that the framers of the law 
had not perfectly correct information, or that the bird 
was introduced or re-introduced about 1835, and soon 
again became extinct. Mr. Kerruish thinks that the dis- 
appearance of the game was due largely to the increase 
of the mining population in the neighbouring Laxey 
valley. 
We can readily imagine that it was during the Athol 
lordship * that the Black Grouse was introduced, the Duke 
and those connected with him being familiar with it in 
Scotland. 2 
Mr, Kermode, in his list of 1880, notes the species, with 
the remark, ‘ Recently introduced and not yet become ex- 
tinct!’ but does not mention it in his subsequent list. I 
cannot give any particulars of the doubtless ineffectual 
attempt at acclimatisation here noticed. Black-game, as 
well as Capercaillie and Willow Grouse (Lagopus albus), the 
‘Ptarmigan’ of the poulterers, are now sometimes common 
in Douglas shops: the dealers’ return shows a hundred and 
thirty-two of the first species in 1903. 
Originally dispersed over Great Britain, the species is 
now chiefly found in Scotland and North England. To 
Ireland it seems not to have been native, and attempts to 
introduce it there and to the Scottish outer isles have not 
prospered. 
1 In a later communication to me Mr. Kerruish says he thinks he last saw 
Black-game about 1842. There is also at Sulby, as Mr. J. Radcliffe has told me, 
a tradition of the former presence of Black-game on the central hills. 
2 1736-1829. It is worth noting that the extinction of the game seems to have 
followed immediately on the passing of the manorial rights of the Duke to the 
English crown. His ‘sovereignty’ had ceased in 1765. 
