Their food consists of the tender
shoots of pines, the seeds of plants, the berries of the arbutus and
bilberry, the buds of the birch and alder, the buds of the heather,
leaves, and grain. The nest is very simply constructed, consisting of
dried grasses placed upon the ground and sheltered among the herbage.
Two species of this bird, called forest grouse, are indigenous in
England: one is the black grouse, common in the pine woods of Scotland
and of the northern part of England, and elsewhere; the other is the
capercailzie or cock of the woods. Formerly, in Ireland, and still more
recently in Scotland, this noble bird, the most magnificent of the whole
of the grouse tribe, was abundant in the larger woods; but it gradually
disappeared, from the indiscriminate slaughter to which it was subject.
Selby informs us that the last individual of this species in Scotland
was killed about forty years ago, near Inverness. It still abounds in
the pine forests of Sweden and Norway, and an attempt has been made by
the Marquis of Breadalbane to re-introduce it into Scotland.
The red grouse, or moor grouse, is found in Scotland; and it is somewhat
singular that this beautiful bird should not be known on the Continent,
abundant as it is on the moorlands of Scotland, England, and Ireland.
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