Part 65

A peculiar interest attaches to this bird on account of its change of plumage from brown in summer to snow-white in winter, and of the fact that it inhabits only the summits and slopes of high mountains. These two things--the white winter plumage and the mountain habit--have a close connection. The periodical change to white is a common phenomenon in arctic animals, both birds and mammals, and all the species of grouse of the genus to which the ptarmigan belongs assume the white dress in winter, with one exception--the red grouse of the British Islands. Thus, in Britain we have two grouse of this group (Lagopus), one of which turns white like the continental grouse, while the other keeps its brown dress throughout the year. To explain this difference it must be assumed that both species inhabited Britain at a period when its climate was an intensely cold one, and that both species changed their colour to protective white in the season of snow. When the British climate changed, and became so mild that the snow no longer remained unmelted for months at a time on the lower levels, all such creatures as had the arctic habit of becoming white in winter would be in danger of extermination, since their intense whiteness on the brown or green earth would make them fatally conspicuous to their enemies. A white grouse on a brown moor would be visible for miles to high-soaring birds of prey. The red grouse escaped destruction by losing its white winter dress: the change in it from two distinct liveries to one colour for all seasons was doubtless gradual, extending over a period of very many centuries, keeping pace with the slowly improving climate. He ended by becoming a bird that was wholly brown in winter, while the willow-grouse of northern Europe and Asia--the continental form, and, it may be added, the parent, form of our bird of the moors--continued to change to white periodically. Meanwhile no such change took place in the ptarmigan’s plumage: he alone continued to assume the pure white winter dress, as if to keep alive the tradition of an ancient arctic Britain; and yet he survived. He escaped destruction because he was a hardier bird, and preferred the higher grounds, where the snows never melted in winter. At the northern limit of its range, north of the arctic circle, the ptarmigan inhabits the fells and level country; in Europe it is everywhere confined to the higher slopes of lofty mountains; in other words, wherever found--and it ranges as far south as the mountains of Spain--it still has an arctic climate. The bird exists ‘islanded’ on high mountains, separated from the rest of its kind by wide spaces of low-lying country as impassable to it as the sea.

The ptarmigan breeds in May. Its nest is well concealed, and is merely a slight hollow in the ground, lined with a little dry grass. Eight to ten eggs are laid, of a yellowish white blotched with dark brown. In autumn or early in winter the birds pack, and sometimes as many as fifty are seen in one flock. Macgillivray has the following interesting account of the bird in its mountain haunts: ‘These beautiful birds, while feeding, run and walk among the weather-beaten and lichen-crested fragments of rock, from which it is very difficult to distinguish them when they remain motionless, as they invariably do should a person be in sight. Indeed, unless you are directed to a particular spot by their strange low, croaking cry, you may pass through a flock of ptarmigans without observing a single individual, although some of them may not be ten yards distant. When squatted, however, they utter no sound, their object being to conceal themselves; and if you discover the one from which the cry has proceeded, you generally find him on the top of a stone, ready to spring off the moment you show an indication of hostility. If you throw a stone at him, he rises, utters his call, and is immediately joined by all the individuals around, which, to your surprise, if it be your first rencontre, you see spring up one by one from the bare ground.’

Red Grouse.

Lagopus scoticus.

Plumage reddish brown on the head and neck, and chestnut brown, barred and speckled with black, on the upper parts; the feathers of the breast almost black, with white tips. In summer the general colour is lighter; in winter the under parts are frequently mottled with white. Length, sixteen inches. Female: more reddish yellow in colour.

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One sunny morning a few months ago, as I stood on a mountain slope among bracken, ling, and furze, and scattered masses of grey rock, watching a small party of grouse near me, it struck me that I had never looked on a more beautiful creature than this bird:--so finely shaped and richly coloured, and proud and free in carriage, and in such perfect harmony with the rough vegetation and that wild and solitary nature amid which it exists. It is not strange that this species should have a fascination above all others for the sportsman that he is willing to go farther and spend more in its pursuit; for it is not the bird only that draws him: the fascination is of that unadulterated nature of which the bird is a part, and the sense of liberty and savage life that returns to man in the midst of mountain and moorland scenery.

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.

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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.

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.

Capercaillie.

Tetrao urogallus.

Feathers of the throat elongated, black; head and neck dusky; eyes with a bare red skin above and a white spot below; wings brown speckled with black; breast lustrous green; belly black with white spots; rump and flanks marked with undulating lines of black and ash colour; tail black with white spots; beak horn-white. Length, two feet ten inches. Female: a third smaller, barred and spotted with tawny red, black, and white; throat tawny red; breast deep red; tail dark red with black bars, white at the tip.

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North Britain, with its islands, although poor in species comparatively, has one glory which her larger, richer neighbour is without: her wilder districts still afford breeding-places to several of the larger species which have long ceased to exist in England. Of these are the osprey, sea-eagle, golden eagle, ptarmigan, and capercaillie, the last the finest game-bird of Europe, with the sole exception of the great bustard. The story of the capercaillie in Great Britain is singularly interesting. It became extinct about the middle of the last century, and was recovered some eighty or ninety years later, when it was reintroduced from Sweden in 1837–8, and has since spread over a large portion of Scotland, and continues to extend its range.

The difference in size between the cock and hen capercaillie is greater than in any other game-bird. In Scotland, the weight of the male is from ten to eleven pounds, that of the female about four pounds and a half. In northern Europe the cock weighs as much as seventeen pounds. It is curious to find that in a large number of gallinaceous birds, the pheasants and grouse more especially, the females have a near resemblance in size, form, and colouring. The divergence is mostly in the males, and is greatest in the polygamous species. Thus, it would be difficult to find two birds in the same order more utterly unlike in appearance than the cock pheasant and capercaillie; yet the females of the two species preserve a strong family likeness.

The capercaillie feeds on the tender shoots of the Scotch fir, and on buds and shoots of other trees and plants, and berries of various kinds. He is an early breeder, and in spring the cock is heard uttering his powerful double cry, several times repeated in succession, from a lofty perch in a pine-tree. While calling he puffs out his plumage and expands his tail like an angry turkey-cock. The call, which is uttered early in the morning, is a summons to the hens, who are not slow to obey it, and is also a challenge to other males. The same spot is used morning after morning for meetings, displays, and combats, until each male has secured his tale of hens, whereupon breeding begins. The nest is a slight hollow scratched in the ground under a bush, and the eggs are six to twelve in number. They are pale reddish yellow in ground-colour, spotted and blotched with brown.

The male does not assume the mature plumage until the third year.

Water-Rail.

Rallus aquaticus.

Bill red; crown, hind neck, and upper parts olive-brown, a black streak in the centre of each feather; cheeks, neck, and breast grey; flanks blackish, barred with white; legs and feet brownish flesh-colour. Length, eleven inches and a half. Female: duller in colour, the wing-coverts sometimes barred with white.

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