167 
THE RED GROUSE. 
Lagopus Scoticus.—JjEACB. 
PLATE XVIII. 
Red Grouse, Muirfowl of British Ornithologists.. — Tetrao 
Scoticus, .dlBctorum.— Lagopus Scoticus, Leach. 
The Muirfowl, the delight of the sportsman, may 
be placed at the head of the sports of the fowler ; it 
is to him what the fox is to the hunter, the salmon to 
the fisher. The light air of the early morning of a 
fine twelfth, and the free and open almost unbound- 
ed prospect, exhilarate the spirits ; while the boldness 
of the game upon discovery, erectly uttering his cry 
of warning to his brood,— his vigorous lengthened 
flight, so long as to create doubts of his being again 
seen,— carry with them a continuation of excitement, 
long after it is satiated with following the skulking 
black game, or the more rural amusement of walk- 
ing up partridges. But independent of this claim 
upon the sportsman, it has another : the red grouse 
is exclusively confined to the British Islands, and 
has never been found on any part of the Continent, 
and it would be much to be regretted if unlimited 
persecution or rvant of preservation should in after 
years exterminate this bird, so exclusively national. 
