The Red Grouse 49 
very like that of the heather, but the flowers are borne in April or May instead of in 
July and August. 
During late autumn Grouse are much influenced by the weather. If it is sunny 
and mild, small packs are formed consisting of mixed sexes, broods of the year, or 
females alone. Sometimes old cocks pack together, but till this season they are often 
found alone or in twos and threes, sitting about on points of vantage on the hillsides 
and about the tops. In late autumn the females are usually much wilder than the 
males, a curious contrast to blackgame and capercaillie. If a " kite " is used at this 
season hardly any females will be killed. They fly away as soon as they see the kite 
and the guns, whilst the old cocks sit closely. Broken weather in November usually 
drives the smaller packs together on the sheltered sides of hills, and so immense flocks 
of Grouse are seen during and after storms. Continuous snowstorms will force the 
whole stock from the higher hills to the lowlands. I remember once driving through 
Moy after such a storm, and seeing at least 3000 Grouse scattered over one small area, 
close to the roadsides. Such privations — primarily due to want of food — cause Grouse 
to be migratory, and few sportsmen understand how very migratory Grouse are under 
such circumstances. They leave a fine stock of birds on a moor in the autumn, and 
next season lament the scarcity of birds ; the whole stock has, perhaps in one day, flown 
from Perthshire into Argyllshire, where the winters are milder and the snow does not 
lie. My friend Mr. John Nix lias informed me that on his moor near Inveraray a 
very moderate stock has been left after shooting, and that almost every year about 
Christmas time immense packs of Grouse come in from the east from over the hills 
and overstock the ground. I believe that during exceptional storms from the east 
Grouse will fly half-way across Scotland, in order to get food and shelter. 1 
The winter of 1884-85 was one of the severest experienced in Northumberland. 
There was a fall of snow, a partial thaw, and then a severe frost, which kept the 
country ice-bound for three months. All food was frozen, and grit was unobtainable. 
The Grouse soon accepted the conditions before it was too late and gathered in 
thousands on the heights of Simondside, and from thence passed in immense packs 
across the Coquet to the sheltered moors about Cragside. It was the opinion of residents 
that had it not been for this timely emigration, and the shelter and food of Lord Arm- 
strong's moors, nearly the whole stock of Grouse in Northumberland would have been 
destroyed. As it was, 1885 was quite an average season ; the most weakened birds 
being only a little later than usual at their nests. 
The causes of migration are obviously lack of food, drought, and snow. It must 
not, however, be supposed that snow, even heavy snow, will always cause Grouse to 
leave their accustomed habitat, for snow often brings with it high winds, and this, the 
terror of the farmer, is of benefit to Grouse, because of the bare places it leaves in 
exposed situations — on these the packs can gather and feed in the short winter day ; 
1 For other instances of the migration of Grouse, read Harvie-Brown, Fauna of the Moray Basin (ii. p. 153), who says: 
"Grouse will migrate miles, even across sea, to search for good heather and healthy conditions." Mr. R. M. Barrington, in 
his Report on the Migration of Birds at Irish Lighthouses, mentions (p. 185) three instances of Grouse seen at light stations, 
in 1883, 1884, and 1894, on islands where they are not resident. See also Proceedings of the Glasgow Nat. Hist. Society for 
1879, p. 167 ; Clarke and Roebuck, Yorkshire Vertebrata, p. 62 ; Nelson, Birds of Yorkshire (ii. p. 512); and a correspondence 
on the subject in the Zoologist, 1886, p. 107, and 1895, pp. 21, 69. 108. — Field, Dec. 19, T90S. 
G 
