Volume 6, Plate XVIII / Ornithology (Birds)

Red Grouse

Lagopus Scoticus

Lagopus Scoticus, the red grouse or muirfowl, is confined exclusively to the British Islands and never found on the Continent, plentiful in Scotland and Ireland and the wilder English moors, its sienna brown plumage and near black belly harmonizing with the heath. Pairing very early and continuing with their broods, the birds lay in a shallow heath sheltered hollow, both parents defending against the carrion crow, and feed on heath tops and increasingly on upland and stubble grain.