62 
The Natural History of British Game Birds 
must have distributed themselves over the country, as I heard of some shortly after twenty miles 
away. The rest stayed near where they were enlarged for some time, but gradually went off 
to other parts of the ground, leaving only five birds in the original spot. I only know of one 
pair which nested ; these had six young ones, with little white on them compared to young 
ryper in Norway. Two or three mated with red grouse, but with no result so far as I know. 
This may have been due to too short a residence in their new home. I hope this summer to find 
several coveys of both pure ryper and cross between ryper and red grouse. I have heard of five 
or six casualties, but I hope the bulk of the ryper are still safe in the district. 
"This year I have persuaded one or two friends to turn some down, and it will be interesting 
to see what the result is. The ryper would be a great adjunct in many places where there are 
woods with blaeberries and birch, especially on the west coast. Disease has never been known 
amongst them, and if they cross with our grouse it might possibly do something to prevent this 
epidemic. I should not wish to introduce too many of these birds, so as to spoil the personality 
of our indigenous red grouse, but the ryper is undoubtedly of value as an extra game bird 
for the wooded parts of our hills. It is a beautiful sight to see a pure white covey flying over 
the heather, and the cocks hovering and crowing as they descend on a tree root or bare 
spot. They seem to adapt themselves to any place easily, and have been feeding on the stooks 
with the red grouse. I have now got some in captivity, in the hope that they may nest here 
next year. W. Steuart-Menzies. " 
No doubt these birds will be a valuable addition to our game if they will continue 
in a habitat similar to that in which they are found in Norway, namely, the low birch 
region, above the pines. But will they do so? Personally, I doubt it. Being practically 
the same bird as the Red Grouse, I think that as time goes on they will interbreed 
freely with our species and become involved and lost in association with the insular 
race. Mr. Harvie-Brown, in a letter to Country Life (March 14, 1908), evidently does 
not look on the experiment, such as it is, with any great favour, and apprehends danger 
to our beloved blackgame, by the Willow Grouse depriving them of their food. This 
I do not for one moment believe. In any case, there are all too few blackgame to eat 
the birch buds and other food enjoyed by both species ; whereas if you could get an 
excellent game bird, such as the Willow Grouse is, to frequent an area which would 
be avoided by Red Grouse, such as the fringe of the moor, and if it would remain 
pure and prove itself as numerous and free from disease as it is in such districts 
as Lapland, Vesteraalen, and Stavanger, sportsmen as well as naturalists would be 
fortunate. 
Nearly all introductions of game birds are doomed to failure if conducted on a 
small scale, and I fear that unless Mr. Steuart-Menzies will repeat his experiment at 
frequent intervals, and also induce some of his neighbours to do the same, the result 
will not be successful. 
