The Red Grouse 
61 
blood-red feathers, legs normal and well feathered with white. The bird in question 
was an adult male in fine plumage, weighing 28 oz. It was killed at Carradale, Argyll- 
shire, in October 1908, and is now in my collection. Since writing the above, I have 
seen a second specimen shot by Sir Peter Walker in Arran, in September 1907. There 
were several birds in the covey all of the same curious colour. 
The Red Grouse has been known to hybridise with the black grouse (of which I 
give examples in the article on that species), ptarmigan (?), and bantam fowl. Of the 
last named I have already recorded the only known instances. Two were dirty white 
(taking after the parent male — a white bantam) ; in form they were midway in shape 
between the parents — very uninteresting-looking birds. They belonged to my friend, 
the late A. G. Moore, and were reared in Ireland. They are now in the Dublin Museum. 
The third example is an exceedingly beautiful bird, of which I gave a figure in Game 
Birds and Shooting Sketches (p. 146, chap. ii.). This remarkable bird was raised by 
an old priest, Father Ryan, of Tipperary, and sent to Mr. Williams, the Dublin taxi- 
dermist, from whom I bought it in 1892. The bird is somewhat larger than a Grouse, 
with a broad, wedge-shaped tail, something like that of a female bantam. The whole 
plumage is very soft and glossy, and of the same colour as a cock Grouse, but with 
fine markings and a black throat and chest. The nape is pale yellow, and the bill 
strong and well hooked. The priest in question kept the hybrid for five years, and 
it was a desperate fighter, beating all the other bantam cocks. One evening it was 
found dead, having at last met its match. 
I have on several occasions been asked to examine what were supposed to be un- 
doubted hybrids between Red Grouse and partridge, but in every case I have found the 
birds to be the somewhat rare blood-red variety of the partridge, at one time known as 
Perdix montana. I do not think that a cross between the two species is possible, 
although many hill partridges live all the year round on Grouse ground. I have seen 
an amorous cock Grouse chase a female partridge, but then I have also seen a blackcock 
do the same when a brace of partridges unwittingly strayed on to the playing-ground. 
Grouse make very delightful pets, and in Game Birds (pp. 127-133) I have given 
several instances of the pleasure they have afforded their owners. One bird soon acquired 
the habit of roosting in a beech-tree with its foster-parent — a bantam hen — and another 
would even accompany shooters to the hill, and was so insulted at being "pointed" by 
a dog that it attacked the quadruped. 
In 1907 Mr. W. Steuart-Menzies introduced from Norway to Speyside a number 
of Willow Grouse [Lagopus albus), or as they are called in Norway, the Dal-ripar 
or Skor- riper. Mr. Menzies' letter in the Field (February 1, 1908) explains his 
experiment : — 
"It may interest some of your readers to know that I imported some Norwegian ryper, or 
willow grouse, in the spring of 1907. These birds were turned out in the north of Scotland, 
and seem to be acclimatising themselves very well. When they arrived, in March, they were snow- 
white, except for a black line at the point of the tail feathers. They were very tame, and fed eagerly 
at once on the blaeberry leaves and birch twigs. They ate little heather and no grain, never 
having seen the latter before, I suppose. After ten days I turned them out of the pen I had 
confined them in, when seventeen of them flew about a mile on to the open moor, whence they 
