RED GROUSE 
much as possible, for they not only invariably harass and disturb the 
other birds, but are themselves less valuable for breeding purposes. 
These quarrelsome old birds should always be treated as vermin, 
and shot for a month or two after the close of the shooting-season. 
When fighting, they stand erect and spread their tails, and strike at 
one another with their bills and wings. When the fight is protracted, 
one or other of the birds is often very badly injured or blinded. 
Nesting . — ^The nest is generally placed in a dry, open situation among 
growing heather, not too rank, and in the immediate neighbourhood 
of young food -heather. A shallow depression is scratched in the ground 
and lined with a little dead grass and a few bits of heather. Eggs are some- 
times found in March, but from April to the beginning of May is the 
normal time, and most of the eggs are laid towards the end of April. 
The date of laying varies, however, in different localities according to 
latitude and elevation. 
Eggs . — ^The number of eggs in a nest varies greatly ; the average number 
is probably from six to eight, but small clutches of four or five, or as 
many as ten or twelve are not uncommon. Larger numbers, such as 
fifteen and seventeen have been recorded, but were probably the produce 
of two hens. 
The eggs are of a rather long oval shape, one end being rather more 
pointed than the other. The ground is pale olive or stone -colour, spotted 
and blotched all over with dark reddish-brown or sometimes bright 
chestnut in freshly-laid eggs. The markings are often confluent, and 
conceal the greater part of the ground-colour. The average measurement 
is about 1*75 inch by 1*23 inch. 
General habits . — ^The hen grouse is an excellent and hardy mother, and 
will remain on her nest during the heavy falls of snow which so often 
occur in April and early May, being sometimes completely covered. 
At such times, when the bird is absent in search of food, the eggs may 
become buried in a snow drift, but unless incubation is considerably 
advanced, this does not necessarily mean that they are lost. A considerable 
percentage are no doubt destroyed, but in many cases, as soon as the snow 
has melted, the hen returns to her nest and successfully hatches her brood. 
A few days of continuous rain seem to have a much more disastrous 
effect, for, in such circumstances, the sitting birds frequently desert their 
nests, being unable to withstand the incessant wet. On the whole, the eggs 
of the grouse seem to be unusually impervious to changes of temperature, 
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