38 
TETRAONIDiE. 
following note on tlie 20th of August, after returning from the first 
day’s black game shooting : — the information was chiefiy derived from 
my host. 
‘‘ Within twenty years a black grouse was an extraordinary sight in 
the neighbourhood of Ballantrae ; and, still later, not more than one or 
two individuals would be met with during a season’s shooting. When 
first there myself, in the autumn of 1828, T saw numbers of these birds 
chiefly about the corn-fields adjacent to the mountains, since which 
time they have been gradually increasing, and of late years have be- 
come abundant. This is doubtless attributable to the great increase 
of cultivation, or the growth of corn in the vicinity of the moors ; for 
with its augmentation that of the black game has proportionally kept 
pace. Within the period alluded to a vast quantity of mountain-land 
has been brought under cultivation in this district. 
“ In grouse ground we met with two or three small packs of black 
game to-day ; but one pack was quite below the moor, and on looking 
to the crop of a young cock killed there I found it filled with the 
flowers of all the plants which grew around : — among them were those 
of the eye-bright {Eiiphrasia officinalis) , mountain chi^weeds {Cerastia), 
Ranunculi, Carices ; but in quantity much exceeding the others were 
those of the autumnal hawk-bit, {Apargia autmnnalis ) . To my veteran 
companion, who has shot here for about twenty seasons successively, 
this plant has long been known as a favourite food of the young black 
game. In addition to the flowers, were many leaves of a small willow, 
every one of which taken from the bird was infested with an insect 
nidus, but its presence was probably accidental. It is in the evening 
chiefly that the black grouse resorts to the corn-fields, and it does this 
when the grain is green, as well as when ripe. Both black and red 
grouse, killed in the course of the day late in the autumn, are not un- 
frequently found, when opened, to contain oats exclusively, which have 
been purloined in the early morning.* The farmers in this part of 
* Mr, Colquhoun, in his work already quoted, states, from the eircumstance of 
heather never having been found in any black grouse opened by him, that the species 
never eats it ; hut this will not apply generdly, as proved in the case of birds ex- 
amined by myself. Examples shot in Scotland, and set up by bird preservers in Belfast, 
are alone alluded to. They were ten in number, and shot from October to Eehruary in 
different years. Oct. — A female was tilled with the twigs of heath and other plants ; a 
male contained a large portion of the tops of heath {Calluna vulgaris) ; many of the 
withered flowers of the devil’s-bit {Scabiosa snccisa) ; a few of those of Composita ; 
