The Black Grouse 
13 
a bird can be found. Yet new habitats are favoured by the birds, which formerly were 
not their home. Taking everything into consideration, Black Grouse are not so plentiful 
throughout Central Scotland as they used to be, and more hens are spared. But this 
point I will discuss later. Old inhabitants at Fortrose in the Black Isle have told 
me that in their youth it was common to see packs of 200 Blackcocks on the stubbles 
in autumn where now they are scarce. These birds were not shot, but simply left the 
districts when the woods became too old. In the extreme north, Black Grouse are only 
common locally in the valleys of Sutherland. In eastern Sutherland they seem to be 
getting very scarce where once they were numerous, but are certainly increasing in the 
west along Strath-naver. In Caithness they are also numerous about Berriedale. They 
are not numerous in north-west Ross-shire, but are found locally all about Gairloch and 
Loch Carron, also in the wooded parts of Skye. In Mull they are found very frequently, 
being reinforced by fresh arrivals from the Mainland vid Ardnamurchan, and they have 
been seen on the Treshnish Islands. They are still plentiful in Islay. Black Grouse 
have never been known in the Outer Hebrides, although attempts to introduce them are 
said to have been made ; neither are they found in the Orkney and Shetland Isles. 
The species has been frequently introduced into Ireland, but without success, and 
Mr. Barrett Hamilton has given {Irish Nat. 1899, p. 37) details of these attempts in the 
counties of Limerick, Sligo, Tyrone, and Antrim. Thompson in the Natural History 
of Ireland and the author of Dr. Pocock's Tour also mention repeated failures in the 
County of Antrim. 1 
Habits. — The home of Blackgame may be described as the fringe of the moor. On 
the first heavy snows of winter they retreat to the deep heather found in the birch and 
rowan area, above the thick timber, and in this sparse cover a few may be found at 
all seasons. Like the capercaillie, however, they are fond of open spaces or elevated 
positions, from which a general view may be obtained, and in such positions coveys 
or packs of Blackcocks may be observed at all seasons except in July and early August, 
when the males may be said to be like the mallard drakes — " a-hiding." A covey seated 
on a frosted birch in winter is a beautiful sight, and at this season, unless a close 
approach is made, it is difficult to tell cocks from hens, but in autumn amongst the 
rich foliage of the rowans, on whose scarlet berries they love to feed, and which is here 
so exquisitely rendered by Mr. Thorburn, we notice glorious effects in colour, the 
browns of the female contrasting vividly with the black and blue of the males in the 
surrounding foliage. If undisturbed, they are rather sedentary birds, for, except during 
wild storms, they will stay all day in one spot where food is to be found. Hardly 
any insect or vegetable food comes amiss to Black Grouse. On examining their crops 
at different seasons, one is struck by their omnivorous diet. In the summer it is in- 
sects, grass points, blueberry shoots, young heather tops. In the autumn, heather, grass 
and rush seeds, trefoils, sorrel, sedge, grain of all kinds, potato tops, turnips (I have 
often shot them rising out of turnip fields), blueberries, raspberries, wild strawberries, 
cranberries, bear-berries, rowan berries, and in winter and spring shoots of larch, Scotch 
firs, and, most of all, birch buds. 
1 Bones found in Ballynamintra Cave were assigned to this species by G. Barrett Hamilton, but Mr. Ussher (who found them), 
in consultation with Professor Newton, says they are those of grouse. 
