The Red Grouse 
43 
are generally hooped, narrow, and vermiculated. Large spots of a paler buff appear 
on the scapulars and tail-coverts. Irish specimens are not so white round the eyes 
as Scotch ones. 
The largest Grouse in our islands come from the moors of Caithness and the south 
of Ireland. I have weighed two males from Cork and one from Caithness, as well as 
an exceptional bird from Cawdor (Nairnshire), which turned the scale at 2 lbs. Mr. 
W. H. St. Quentin mentions {Field) a pair of Grouse killed (in Sutherland) which 
weighed 4 lbs. Adult males usually weigh lbs., and females are a few ounces less. 
The smallest Grouse I have seen come from the hills of Donegal, males weighing 
about \\ lbs. Messrs. Ussher and Warren record 1 an Irish male from Kerry of the 
unusual weight of i\ lbs. 
Male length, 15.5 in. ; wing, 8.1 in.; tail, 4.8 in.; tarsus, 1.4 in. 
Female length, 15 in. ; wing, 7.8 in. ; tail, 4.3 in. ; tarsus, 1.35 in. 
Yorkshire Grouse average 24 oz. (males) and 20 oz. (females), though examples 
have been known to scale as much as 32 oz. and 24 oz. 
Young. — At first the young are covered with yellowish buff down ; the head and 
upper parts being barred and blotched with black. In first plumage the immatures are 
somewhat similar in colour to adult females, except that all the black markings are 
smaller and more vermiculated. About the end of July the flank feathers of the adult 
plumage appear, and the whole dress is moulted and complete in winter plumage by 
the end of September. Young birds in October are often quite as large as adults, and 
the old Scotch methods of determining age by holding a bird by the lower mandible 
to see if it will break is a totally erroneous one. The jaw of a heavy old bird will often 
break if it is held and jerked in October, whilst that of a young bird will as often 
not do so. 
Distribution. — The Red Grouse is indigenous only to the British Islands, and 
flourishes wherever ling and heath are to be found in quantity. But it is also found 
on many grass, crowberry, and rush areas in the vicinity of moors even at sea-level. 
In England it is most plentiful in the northern counties (especially in Yorkshire 
and Derbyshire), such as Northumberland, Durham, Westmorland, Cumberland, and 
Lancashire ; also, along the Pennine range, and in Cheshire, Shropshire, Stafford- 
shire. Many introductions to various parts of southern and eastern England have been 
attempted, but these have generally ended in failure. In 1903, Grouse were turned down 
at Elvedon by Lord Iveagh, and they have bred regularly ever since ; now they number 
about 150 birds {British Birds, September 1908). Wanderers have appeared and been 
shot as far east as Holkam in Norfolk. 
A Red Grouse is reported to have been killed near Tintagel in Cornwall on 
December 1, 1906 (J. Clark, 1907, p. 286). 
The Red Grouse may be called the typical bird of Yorkshire, being found numerously 
distributed throughout the moorlands that stretch from the borders of Derbyshire in the 
south to the north, including Teesdale, and other moors stretching from the Cleveland 
and Humbleton Hills to the coast as far as Scarborough. In the days of James I., 
it was the custom to take game either with nets or hawks. Wilson of Broomhead 
1 Birds of Ireland, p. 230. 
