90 
RED GROUSE. 
toes completely covered with hair-like feathers, 
sometimes covering the claws, which are long, 
straight, and somewhat flattened. 
Types, L. Scoticus mutus , &c. Europe, northern 
parts of North America. The Arctic Circle. 
Note. — Monogamous; gregarious in winter; habits 
entirely terrestrial. 
The Red Grouse or Red Ptarmigan, Lagopus 
Scoticus, Vieillot — Tetrao Scoticus, Linn., Penn., 
etc. — Tetras rouge , Temm. — M oorfoivl or Red 
Grouse of British authors . — The Red Grouse, or 
Moorfowl, has peculiar claims on the naturalists and 
sportsmen of Britain, as being an insulated species, 
hitherto undiscovered except in moorland districts 
of Great Britain and Ireland. Those birds which, 
in other parts of Northern Europe, resemble it in 
the colouring of the plumage of summer, differ from 
it in several particulars, considered of sufficient im- 
portance to constitute distinct species. 
The Red Grouse is still plentiful in Scotland and 
England, but is now more sparingly spread over the 
southern districts of the former ; upon the moors it 
is well known that not a tenth of the former number 
of birds at present exist, and it is only in the more 
remote districts, where access and accommodation 
for sportsmen are still in some degree wanting, that 
they are to be seen in any thing like their former 
numbers. 
The habits of the birds have considerably changed. 
