24 The Natural History of British Game Birds 
In hard weather large flocks of Blackgame may be observed sitting on the thorn 
trees, eating the haws, which, like missel thrushes and fieldfares, they do not seem to 
touch unless the winter is unusually cold. They also eat much birch and alder "tops" 
at such times. Quantities of sand and gravel are also swallowed to promote digestion. 
Although Blackgame show a distinct distaste for districts that are wholly covered 
with " old " forest, they will resort to the heavy timber for shelter during continuous 
bad weather, and are often found along the edges of such woods and amongst big trees, 
especially when there are thickets of gorse and birch amongst them. There was one 
such place in the middle of the big woods at Murthly, where we always found Black 
Grouse in winter, but they were seldom to be found there at other seasons. I remember 
shooting the woods at Guisechan, 1 in November, when the weather was exceptionally 
fine, and we did not kill a single Blackcock. In the following year after the first 
heavy snowstorm the woods were full of Black Grouse, and a number were killed. 
The ground these birds prefer is rough and broken heather, gorse and marshy lands 
adjoining open birch forest, intersected by mountain streams. As long as such ground 
produces the quantity of food, and care is evinced in their management, they will re- 
main, but any change in the nature of their environment causes an immediate or gradual 
migration to new pastures. In this country we do not observe the wholesale move- 
ments so noticeable on the Continent, due in every case to absence or abundance of food ; 
but small local migrations are found to take place all over Scotland, in accordance with 
local conditions. 
The flight is very rapid and enduring. Blackgame are capable of flying great dis- 
tances when necessity impels them to do so, but when disturbed on their own ground 
they seldom fly more than a mile. Hardly any sound is noticeable on rising, but on 
alighting one or two sharp beats make a noise similar to grouse, and in cover to female 
capercaillie. 
In the open they " sail " more than grouse do, and in woods adopt the same 
swinging movements as capercaillie amongst trees. The flight in cover is usually low, 
but on open moors a " risen " Blackcock or Greyhen may often be recognised from 
grouse at a distance by its superior altitude. Another feature in the flight of these 
birds in the open is the habit they have of circling over ground they have just left 
or on which they intend to pitch. In this way they often avoid guns at the butts, or 
with supreme contempt come all down the line, apparently careless of the effects of shot. 
It is this devil-may-care, bold attitude of Black Grouse that endears them to British 
sportsmen. You can hardly drive a Blackcock a way he does not intend to go, whilst 
no amount of firing ahead or flag-wagging behind will turn him from the direction 
he wishes to follow. I have seen a Blackcock in Staffordshire, after two or three circles 
over the moor, come over the "butts" and pass away far behind. Then not liking the 
look of the place, it swung round and came back again over the guns, when it was 
killed. Such boldness is unusual, but it shows the determined nature of the bird. 
I have seen Blackgame flying across the valley of Somerset from the Quantocks to 
1 Guisechan is one of the best places in Scotland for Woodcock when they first come in. On this day, in a wood of about 
a quarter of a mile long, we killed twenty-eight. I was the top gun on the moor edge, and killed fifteen to my own gun — one of the 
pleasantest half-hours I have ever enjoyed. 
