THE GROUSE IN HEALTH
AND IN DISEASE
PART I. — THE NORMAL GROUSE
CHAPTER I
the systematic position of the grouse
By A. H. Evans
The name Grouse, in the form "Grows," has been traced back by Salusbury Brereton to the reign of Henry VIII. (1531), and in its present form to 1603. But, since it first occurs in an ordinance for the regulation of the Royal History of
the name
Grouse. Household at Eltham in Kent, it ought in all probability to be applied the name to the Black Grouse which may then have inhabited that county, though no actual record has yet been discovered. Further particulars are given by Professor Newton in his "Dictionary of Birds."[1] The appellation has, however, by universal consent been long transferred to the Red Grouse, the Moorfowl of our forefathers, and when standing alone would never now be understood otherwise.
This species is the most characteristic bird of the Scottish moorlands, including the Hebrides and the Orkneys, and is plentiful thence to the northern counties of England; in few places is it more numerous than on the Distributionmoors of South Yorkshire and Derbyshire in the vicinity of Sheffield; while to the west it not only occurs in decreasing numbers to Shropshire, but is found in Wales as far south as Glamorganshire, and in Ireland in most suitable localities. Attempts have been made to acclimatise it to the north and south of its proper range; but the few pairs turned down in Acclimatisation Shetland between 1858 and 1883, with a greater number in 1901, have never thriven, while their descendants are apparently extinct, and the same may be said of those introduced into Surrey, Norfolk, and elsewhere, with
- ↑ A. Newton, "Dictionary of birds," p. 388. London: A. and C. Black, 1893-1896. VOL. I.
