To the ornithologist the grouse has another great distinction: it is the only species of bird exclusively British. It is generally distributed in Scotland and its islands, the Shetlands excepted. It also inhabits the moors in the northern counties of England, and of Wales as far south as Glamorgan; and of Ireland, where, unhappily, it is decreasing in numbers.
The grouse feeds principally on the tender shoots of the heather; and also eats leaves and buds of other plants, and such wild fruits as grow on or near the moors. In autumn and winter it is gregarious, and in some localities the males and females pack separately. Pairing takes place very early in the spring, and the male, as is usual in the grouse family, courts the female with curious sounds and a fantastic dancing performance. The wooing takes place very early in the morning, before there is light enough to feed. Flying up to a height of fifteen or twenty feet into the air, he drops down uttering a succession of powerful ringing notes, which end as the bird reaches the ground. This is repeated again and again until daylight and feeding-time suspend the performance. The red grouse is strictly monogamous, and each pair retires to its own chosen nesting-place, where a slight hollow is scratched under a tuft of ling, and five or six to twelve eggs are laid. They are pale olive in ground-colour, blotched with dark red. The female alone incubates, but the male assists in rearing and protecting the young. The chicks when small feed chiefly on small caterpillars.
Black Grouse.
Tetrao tetrix.
Black with violet reflections; a broad white band on the wings; secondaries tipped with white; lower tail-coverts white; eyebrows naked, vermilion; a white spot beneath the eye. Length, twenty-three inches. Female: head and neck rust-red barred with black; rump and tail-feathers black barred with red; belly dusky brown with red and whitish bars.
The black grouse is most abundant and generally distributed in Scotland and the northern counties of England, but is everywhere decreasing in numbers. In England its decline has been most marked, and in the southern counties, where it was formerly common, it ceased to exist, except in the New Forest, where a few birds survive. It has been reintroduced in some localities, but so far has not thriven well. In Ireland it is not indigenous.
Fig. 93.—Blackcock. ¹⁄₁₀ natural size.
Its large size, rich blue-black plumage, white wing-bar, scarlet wattles, and strange lyre-shaped ornament, formed by the outward-curving feathers of the tail, give the black cock an exceedingly fine appearance, and he is, perhaps, the handsomest of our game-birds. He inhabits both woods and moors, but is most partial to grounds of a mixed character, such as are found on the fringe of a moor, where woods and thickets are broken and varied with patches of heath.
The black cock is polygamous; and at the end of winter many birds meet together at an early hour of the morning, when the males utter their powerful call-notes, and strut to and fro, with tail expanded and trailing wings, in the presence of the hens. These ‘matrimonial markets’ are scenes of desperate combats between rival cocks. In the end each male retires with the females he has secured for his harem. The hen makes a slight nest under the shelter of a bush, and lays six to ten eggs, yellowish white, with orange-brown spots. The young feed principally on larvæ of ants and other insects. Grain, seeds, berries and buds, and shoots of many kinds, are eaten by the old birds.