THE BLACK GROUSE. 
37 
ber of black cattle that are kept on the mountains in the north of Ireland, there is 
scarcely any sprit or rushes allowed to grow that would be of any use either for 
cover or food. I have seldom seen black game sit when cattle go near them, and a 
crow flying over will make a score of them rise and fly away in the latter end of the 
season, when they are strong on the wing. With respect to the haunts and breed- 
ing-ground of young black game, I speak only from my own observations. I am 
not aware that they haunt the same kind of ground in other parts of the country ; I 
merely wish to direct your attention to it. I know they are plenty in the island of 
xArrau, but do not know what sort of ground they frequent there. As I mentioned 
before, none of the hens have been seen since the beginning of the breeding time ; 
whether they began to hatch and were killed by some vermin, or wandered away in 
search of a more suitable place for their pui’pose, is a question I cannot answer. 
Lord Courtown’s keeper was at Douglas Castle shortly after I was, in November 
1839, and got away six brace to his lordship’s estates south of Dublin, but I have 
not heard how they succeeded.” A similar want of success has been attendant on 
birds brought from Scotland, and turned out at Tollymore Park, county of Down. 
In April 1846 there was still a flue gray hen there, but no male bird.* 
How different from this is the case at Ballaiitrae in Ayrshire, just 
opposite to Glenarm ! When sporting there in 1839 I made the 
(p. 6). The low growing Carices and rushes (as Scirpus Savii, &c.) are commonly 
called sprit, in the north of Ireland, by the country people. 
* Carriage and Vitality of Eggs . — The following instance of the carriage of the 
eggs of the black grouse with perfect safety to a considerable distance, after their 
having been partly incubated, is interesting. In June 1833 Mr. Arbuthnot Emer- 
son had brought to him in Belfast, from Stranraer, Wigton-shire, nine eggs taken 
from the nest of a black grouse. These eggs were placed under a bantam hen, and 
in one week seven young birds made their appearance. Two of them soon died, but 
the remaining flve lived for about a month, until cold and wet weather set in, when 
they all died. The eggs were packed in feathers, and brought by the mail-coach 
from Stranraer to Portpatrick, where they were shipped on board the steam-packet, 
put into the mail again at Donaghadee, and in about twelve hours after being taken 
from the nest (at three o’clock A.M.), were placed under the bantam hen. 
On the same subject I have learned from Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., respecting a nest of 
partridge’s eggs once brought to him from a distance of eight miles, that they were 
quite cold when received ; but being placed under a common hen, the young birds 
came out in half the usual time ; thus showing that eggs, when half incubated, can be 
carried to a distance without their vitality being impaired. The same gentleman 
informs me that having once “ set” nine eggs of the domestic hen, he by mistake, 
at the expiration of two instead of three weeks, went to examine them, and lifting 
each egg shook it violently to ascertain if it were addled. He concluded that all 
were in this state, and thought no more of them until a week afterwards, when— the 
twenty-one days having expired — the hen appeared strutting about with seven or 
eight chickens ; the violent shaking in this instance of eggs two-thirds incubated did 
not injure the contained chick. Mr. W. Sinclaire has known his tame pigeons 
remain off the nest all night when their eggs were half incubated, and though, as in 
the case of those of the partridge, they felt quite cold, no injury arose from this cir- 
cumstance,— the young appeared at the expected time. 
