198 RED GROUSE. 
Both parents, when the young are hatched, attend to their 
wants, and both will attempt to defend them against enemies, 
and even the Scaul-crow is sometimes beaten off. Towards 
the beginning of winter several flocks often unite together, 
to the number of thirty or forty, forming what are called 
packs, and are then more shy than previously. In severe 
winters these packs accumulate into very large bodies: in 
1782-3 it is said by Thornton that four thousand were observed 
together. 
Their flight, for the most part low and heavy, but strong, 
and often extended to a considerable distance, is straight, 
accompanied by a whirring of the wings, which are rapidly 
moved, and at times, especially if declining along the mountain 
side, they sail with outstretched and motionless pinions. 
They do not ordinarily fly much, but prefer the concealment 
of the heath, a natural protection against their various natural 
enemies, their colour also assimilating to it: they therefore 
run to some distance, or squat down to conceal themselves, 
rising if the danger appears too proximate; then the male 
stretches up his head to reconnoitre, and with a loud eall 
takes wing, followed by the female and the young. 
The tender leaves and shoots of the heath and ling are 
the main articles of food of the Grouse, as also those of cotton 
grass and various grasses, the willows, the trailing arbutus, 
the bedstraw, the whortleberry, the crowberry, the bilberry, 
and the berries of the latter-named of these, but they also 
feed voraciously on corn, if any is grown within their reach, 
oats especially, and swallow small particles of stone in aid of 
digestion. The pieces of the heath which they take are about 
half an inch long each, and these they select as they walk 
about among the heather. When not feeding they rest within 
its shelter, or bask in the sun in some open place, under the 
cover of some tuft or bush. 
The bold challenge of the Moor-cock, imaginable into a 
‘so, go, go-back, go-back,’ a call of defiance, or of alarm to 
their mate or young, or both, in the spring or the autumn, 
as the case may be, is heard both early in the morning, soon 
after dawn, and late in the evening, as also at times throughout 
the day: the ordinary note is a deep and quickly-repeated — 
‘eoe, coe.’ 
The Moor-cock pairs early in the spring, commonly in 
January, but sometimes even earlier. A brood of young 
Grouse, able to fly a little, were discovered on the 5th. of 
