AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
227 
birds, they are then so intent upon the victory in their own 
battle, that they do not heed the approach of strangers. Not 
only may all that are within the spread of a musket-shot be 
killed at one shot, but they may be struck a second time 
with a stick, so eager are they for victory among themselves. 
The nests, like those of most of the gallinaceous birds, are 
rude; the eggs are usually six or seven; they are of a yel- 
lowish white, dotted with very minute ferruginous specks; 
and about the size of those of the pheasant. The young 
are produced rather late in the season, but as there is then 
plenty of food, they grow rapidly. In their early stage 
they follow the mother, and nestle under her wings in some 
safe place during the night; but after about five weeks, they 
have acquired so much strength and use of their wings as to 
be able to perch along with her. As the winter sets in, the 
different families leave their mothers, and the whole assem- 
ble in flocks like the red grouse. They are never, so far as 
our observation has gone, found, like those, even in the 
margins of the cultivated fields, but continue in the moun- 
tains during the winter; finding, as is supposed, their food 
under the snow, and being also often found in their retreats 
by beasts and birds of prey. 
When the snow begins to fall heavy, the black grouse 
betake themselves to the shelter of tall heath, juniper, or 
any other plant, that will afford them cover while the vio- 
lent wind, with which falls of snow are usually accompained 
in Alpine districts, lasts; or they roost under the thick bran- 
ches of the pines, in situations where they have access to 
these. Even upon the pines, the snow forms a close canopy, 
which lasts for a considerable time, while below there is a 
sufficiency of air for the breathing of the bird. In the shel- 
ter of the bushes they are obliged, like the white hares and 
other inhabitants of the mountains, to open breathing holes 
for themselves; and while they are pent up in their habita- 
tions of snow, the tops of the heather, or leaves of the bush, 
find them in food. When the surface becomes hard [which 
it does in no great length of time after the fall of snow is 
over, in consequence of the softening of the surface by the 
action of the sun, and the congealing of it again at night, till 
it is converted into a crust of smooth ice, and reflects off the 
greater part of the solar heat obliquely, as the rays then fall 
upon the surface] those breathing holes often betray their 
inmates to the ravages of predatory birds and quadrupeds. 
The mountain-eagles and hawks then fly over the snowy 
surface, and beat in the same manner for these holes, as they 
do for the birds themselves when there is no snow upon the 
ground ; and the four-footed ravager, that then find an easy 
passage along the hard surface, join in the spoil. Man 
sometimes also takes a part in it, but much less frequently, 
because there are concealed holes and precipices under the 
snow, which are full of danger. 
But the winds by which the falls of snow in the Alpine 
countries are accompanied, though they render these formi- 
dable to the animals, whether quadruped or bird, while they 
last, and fatal to man if he be overtaken by them late in the 
day and far from his home, have yet their uses, and tend in 
some measure to the preservation of life. Some portions 
toward the windward are left bare, or at any rate with the 
tops of the heath and other plants above the surface, and the 
vigorous find their way to these, and subsist on them till 
other parts of the surface be clear. When, however, the 
snow falls in continued storms, and especially with the 
wind from opposite points during the different falls, the suf- 
ferings of the creatures are extreme: first, those that live on 
vegetables, perish through suffocation or of hunger, and 
then the carnivorous ones, which can in general subsist 
longer without food, follow in their turn; and when the 
snow clears away, the raven comes to enjoy the spoils of 
both. 
These are but a few of the inhabitants of the moor; but 
moor means so many different kinds of country, according 
to the situation in which it is placed, that there is no possi- 
bility of including in a short space the characters that are 
common to all. There are comparatively few quadrupeds 
peculiar to such situations, and the number of insects is not 
great; the plants, too, though more abundant and more nu- 
merous in their species, are not those that are the most strik- 
ing in their appearance, or the most interesting in their pro- 
perties. 
Alpine hares are sometimes found in the more elevated 
parts of the higher moors, and the common hare in the low- 
er parts of those that are near the cultivated grounds; but 
the only quadrupeds which can be considered as natives, 
and permanent inhabitants of the moors in any part of 
Britain, are deer; and they properly fall into the descrip- 
tion of a more limited and peculiar description of scenery. 
We must, therefore, even though the subject be merely be- 
gun, close our account of this division of the surface of our 
country. There are other circumstances connected with it 
in common with other places, to which we can afterwards 
advert with more effect. What has been mentioned will 
tend to show that, even in one of its departments, that por- 
tion of the earth’s surface which, on account of its flatness 
and its sterility, is the least pleasing or promising, is yet 
fraught with lessons of the greatest importance, if we would 
only pause and read them. Nor even when the moor has 
advanced one step further, and become a desart in the burn- 
ing climate, or a peat-bog in the cold and marshy one, can 
we dare to say, that it is without its usefulness. The peat- 
bog is the coal-field of future times, and the waste of Zahara 
must have its use, or it would not have existence. 
British Naturalist . 
