THE GROUSE AND OTHER BIRDS
IN August when so many people are either shooting or eating that
delectable bird--the grouse--a few words about him and his kind will
be seasonable. "Grouse" is an English word (said to have meant in its
original form "speckled"), and by "the" grouse we mean the British
red grouse, which, though closely related to the willow grouse,
called "rype" (pronounced "reepa") in Norway--a name applied also to
the ptarmigan--is one of the very few species of birds peculiar to
the British Islands. The willow-grouse turns white in winter, and is
often called the ptarmigan, which it is not, though closely related to
it. The willow-grouse inhabits a sub-arctic zone, which extends from
Norway across the whole continent of Europe and Asia, and through North
America, from the Aleutian Islands to Newfoundland. The red grouse
does not naturally occur beyond the limits of the British Islands.
It does not turn white in winter, and the back of the cock bird is
darker in colour, as is also the whole plumage of the hen bird, than
in the willow-grouse. The red grouse lives on heather-grown moors;
the willow-grouse prefers the shrubby growths of berry-bearing plants
interspersed with willows, whence its name. No distinction can be
discovered in the voice, eggs, build, and anatomical details of the two
species. The red grouse and the willow-grouse were, at no very distant
prehistoric period, one species, but the race which has become isolated
in these islands has just the small number of marked differences which
I have mentioned, and it breeds true, and therefore we call it a
distinct "species." In Scotland, the red grouse is called "muir-fowl,"
and a century ago was almost invariably spoken of in England as
moor-fowl, or moor-game. It is found on moors from Monmouthshire
northward to the Orkneys, and inhabits similar situations in Wales and
Ireland.
The red grouse and the willow-grouse belong to a section or "order" of
birds which are classified together because they all have many points
in common with "the common fowl" or jungle-cock and the pheasants.
That order or pedigree-branch was named by Huxley Alectoromorphæ,
or cock-like birds, perhaps more simply termed Galliformes, Gallus
being the Latin name for "chanticleer." When there is a question of
the groups recognized in the classification of animals, it is well to
bear in mind, once for all, that the biggest branches of the animal
pedigree are called "phyla" (or sub-kingdoms); that these have branches
or sub-divisions which are called "classes" (birds are a class of the
phylum Vertebrata). Classes divide into "orders"; these often are
subdivided into "sub-orders." Orders comprise each several smaller
branches called "families," families branch into "genera," and each
"genus" contains a number of "species" which have diverged from a
common ancestral form, and become more or less stable and unchanging
(but not unchangeable) at the present day. The individuals of a species
are distinguishable by certain marks, shape, and colour from the
individuals of other species of the genus. They breed true to those
points when in natural conditions, and show some differences of habit,
locality, and constitution which emphasize their distinction as a
separate "species."
The order Galliformes of the class Aves or birds is one of some
eighteen similar orders of birds. It contains several families, namely,
the grouse-birds, the partridges, the francolins (formerly introduced
into Italy from Cyprus), the quails, the pheasants, including the
common fowl or Gallus, the peacocks, the turkeys, and, lastly, the
guinea-fowls. The mound-builders and the South American curassows (very
handsome birds to be seen at the Zoological Gardens) are families which
have to be separated from the rest as a distinct sub-order. Fifty years
ago the pigeons were placed in one order with the galliform birds,
which was termed "Rasores," or scratching birds; but they are now
separated under the name Columbiformes.
All the galliform birds are specially agreeable to man as food, and
the domesticated race of the jungle-fowl--for which we have no proper
English name, except that of "the" fowl[1]--is second only to the dog
in its close association with man. It seems to have been domesticated
first in Burma, and was introduced into China about 1000 B.C., and
through Greece into Europe about 600 B.C. It is not mentioned in the
Hebrew Scriptures, nor by Homer, nor figured on ancient Egyptian
monuments. It was called "the Persian bird" by the Greeks, indicating
that it came to them from the Far East through Persia. The common or
barn-door fowl is assigned to the genus Gallus, of which there are
four wild species. It is very closely related to the pheasants (genus
Phasianus, with several "local" species); indeed, so closely that,
when pheasants and "fowls" are kept together in confinement they
will sometimes interbreed and produce vigorous hybrids. The peacocks
are Indian, and with them is associated the Malay Argus-pheasant.
They share with the turkeys, which are North American in origin, the
habit of "display" by the male birds when "courting"--a habit which
we see in a less marked form in the strutting, wing-scraping, and
cries of the pheasants, chanticleers, and grouse-birds. The various
species of partridges are confined to the temperate regions of the
Old World, but the word is wrongly applied in America and Australia
to other kinds of birds. The guinea-fowls are African, and so are the
francolins and quails, the latter migrating to the South of Europe. It
is an interesting fact that, when the turkey was first brought from
America, about 1550, a confusion grew up in Europe between it and
the guinea-fowl. The turkey was given a genus (Meleagris) to itself
by Linnæus, who called it "M. gallopavo," whilst the guinea-fowl was
called "Numida meleagris." We know, at present, other "species" of
Meleagris besides M. gallopavo, and other species of Numida.
[1] "Chanticleer" is the name given to the cock-bird of this species in
the very ancient story of "Renard the Fox."
Now we revert to the grouse-birds, a family for which the zoologist's
name is Tetraonidæ. They all have the beautiful crimson arch of
bare knobby skin above each eye which gives its chief beauty to our
grouse. The family contains several genera and included species. The
largest species is the capercailzie (a Gaelic word), or cock of the
wood, called by the French "coque du bois," by the Germans "auerhahn"
(auerhuhn for the hen bird), and by the Norwegians "tiur." It is
placed in the genus Tetrao (which gives its name to the "family"), and
receives the specific name "urogallus." This fine bird was formerly
native in England, as well as in Scotland and Ireland, and is found
in the pine forests of Europe from Spain to Lapland and Greece. It
has been re-established in Scotland since 1838. An allied species is
found in Siberia. The black grouse (often called black cock and grey
hen) is a second species of the genus Tetrao, namely, T. tectrix. It
is often called "Lyrurus tetrix." The French name for it is "coq de
bruyère"; the German is "birkhahn." It is a smaller bird than the
capercailzie, but frequently produces hybrids with that species. The
beautifully curled tail-feathers are favourite adornments for the hat
of mountaineers and hunters in the Tyrol and Switzerland.
Though the word "grouse" may have been first applied (as some think)
to the black cock, it is now the proper appellation of the red grouse.
This bird is placed by zoologists in the genus Lagopus--the members
of which are easily distinguishable from other Tetraonidæ by the fact
that their feet and toes are well covered with feathers. "L. scoticus"
is the scientific name of the red grouse. Being a purely British bird,
it has no foreign designations. "L. saliceti" is the name of the
allied willow-grouse, which has an endless variety of names, owing to
its great range of distribution. The willow-grouse is often called
ptarmigan, and is sold as such to the number of thousands by poulterers
in our markets, but it is not the true ptarmigan. Owing to the fact
that its plumage is quite white in winter, there is much excuse for the
confusion. The name "ptarmigan" is the Gaelic word "tarmachan," and
no one has explained how the initial "p" came to be added to it. The
bird called in Scotland tarmachan or ptarmigan is a third species of
Lagopus. It is much rarer in Scotland than the red grouse, and lives in
high, bare ground. It is numerous at an elevation far above the growth
of trees in Norway, and occurs also in the Pyrenees and the Alps. It
turns white in winter (as do all the species of Lagopus except the red
grouse), and differs in many features of structure from the red grouse
and the willow-grouse. It is called "L. mutus." A fourth species of
Lagopus is L. rupestris, of North America, Greenland, Iceland, and
Siberia. Spitzbergen has a fifth species, L. hemileucurus, a large
form. The sixth and smallest species of Lagopus is the L. leucurus of
the Rocky Mountains. There are yet further some excellent grouse-like
birds, which are separated to form other genera distinct from Lagopus.
Though they do not inhabit the British Islands, some of them are
brought occasionally to the London market. The hazel-hen of continental
Europe is one of these, and is considered to be the most delicate
game-bird that comes to table. It is placed in the genus Bonasa, and
receives the specific name "sylvestris." The French call it "gelinotte"
(under which name various kinds of cold-storage grouse are often
served in London clubs and restaurants), the Germans "hasel-huhn,"
and the Scandinavians "hjerpe." It is a purely forest bird. It is
represented in North America by four other species, of which the best
known is Bonasa umbellus, called by the Americans the ruffed grouse or
birch-partridge.
Another genus of Tetraonidæ, or grouse-birds, is called "Canachites,"
and contains the species known as the Canadian spruce-partridge,
Franklin's spruce-partridge, and the Siberian spruce-partridge. Nearly
allied to these is a genus Dendragapus, with three North American
species. Then we have the sage-cock of the plains of California
(Centrocerus urophasianus), three species of sharp-tailed grouse (genus
Pediocætes), and "the prairie hen," of which three species are placed
in the genus Tympanuchus. The United States have, undoubtedly, a great
variety of grouse-like birds. Nevertheless, a year ago I met in Paris
an American from the neighbourhood of Boston who told me that he should
have to desert his native land and come to live in Europe, because he
could not obtain a regular supply of game-birds for his table in the
eastern States. He was eating a Scotch grouse at the time with evident
satisfaction.
The supply of grouse in this country has been threatened by disease
caused by the attempt to make the moors carry more birds than they
would do under natural conditions. The number annually shot on British
moors is enormous. Predaceous animals have been destroyed in order
to increase the number of birds, but this proceeding has resulted in
allowing the weakly to survive. The undisturbed stretches of moorland
have also of late years been greatly broken into both by roads and
building, and by the too abundant visitation of strangers of all kinds.
Only a few years ago one moor-owner was able to boast that he had on
several occasions killed over 500 head of grouse in a single day on
his moor, and that in one season he and his guests had killed 18,231
head of grouse on that same moor! Personally I rejoice when grouse are
abundant, but it seems to me possible that the moor above mentioned had
been made to carry, so to speak, too heavy a crop. However, there is
reason to hope that the balance of Nature is restored after a few years
of disease, which kills off the too-abundant bird population.