48 
TETRAONID.E. 
2 oz. On the rocky parts they were of a very much lighter 
brown; while on the stony and heathy ground combined they 
were of an intermediate brown^ mottled more or less with white. 
On the range of the Belfast mountains,, rising to nearly 1^600 
feet in altitude,, the grouse still maintains its ground. In the 
evenings of summer and autumn,, when taking a favourite walk to 
the mountain ridge to behold the grand and varied prospect on 
every side,, — above all to watch the down-going of the sun behind 
the distant mountains on the farther side of Lough Neagh^ and 
see the great expanse of waters steeped in the most lovely hues^ — 
the crowing of the grouse has almost invariably enlivened my 
walk home. To my ear the call is dehghtful^ from its association 
with the wildness of nature. When undisturbed at such times, 
the alarm note, well known to sportsmen as a repetition of the 
syllable was rarely heard ; but the crowing which is admi- 
rably represented by the words go, go, go, go, go hack, go hack^’"^ 
was continued for a long time, commencing, at the end of August 
and during September, about half an hour after sunset, and con- 
tinuing sometimes for nearly an hour. During one of these 
walks, in the month of June, a pointer dog was inconsiderately 
allowed to follow me, and by his trespassing on the breeding 
haunts of the grouse, lapwing, and snipe, he caused a continued 
uproar from the three species, akin to what we hear from the 
various birds on the sea-shore. 
As observed by Mr. Poole, when on a pedestrian excursion 
among the Comeragh mountains (Waterford), ^ Go back, go 
back, go back,"’ was repeated as well and as distinctly by this 
bird as man could utter it, and in such wild and dangerous 
solitudes it sounds like a warning from some supernatural being, 
which, if timid, one feels more than half inclined to take.^^ 
There were lately, for a considerable period, in the aviary of the 
Eoyal Botanic Garden, Belfast, two male grouse from which these 
* MacgiUivray’s ‘Brit. Birds/ vol. i. p. 181, where it is added that “the Celts 
naturally imagining the moor-eock to speak Gaelic, interpret it as signifying co, co, 
CO, CO, mo-cMaidh, mo-chlaidh ; that is, who, who (goes there ?), my sword, my 
sword !” 
