File:Stories about birds of land and water (1874) (14564196150).jpg

Identifier: storiesaboutbird00kirb (find matches)
Title: Stories about birds of land and water
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Kirby, Mary, 1817-1893 Kirby, Elizabeth, 1823-1873
Subjects: Birds -- Juvenile literature
Publisher: Hartford (Conn.) : American Publishing Co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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hills of Scotland, andhis habits are well known to the sportsman, as well as to the naturalist. Early in the morning of a clear autumnal day he may be seen by thewatchful observer threading his way through some romantic glen where theheather grows. He pecks off tender morsels of the young twigs with his bill,and as he goes on, meets with berries and wild fruit, none of which he despises.His crop is very large, and by degrees it becomes quite full of twigs andberries that have passed into it, and go down into the gizzard like a com-pact mass. The mill is, however, strong enough to grind it into pulp, aidedby morsels of sand and gravel, which these kind of birds are in the habit of 17^ STORIES ABOUT BIRL. swallowincj. So, in fact, the black grouse, like many of the family, goesthrough a process that very much resembles chewing the cud. He does not wander far from his native haunts, and the least noise alarmshim. If a footstep approaches he flies off to some secret spot, and lies hidden
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THE lil.ACK-COCK. until the danger is past. He is found in many parts of England, as well as ofScotland. Like his splendid relative the capercailzie, he has been driven fromone spot to another by the progress of men and cities and cultivation. Butthere are some few spots remaining in which he dwells. Among the manyplantations in Northumberland, in the New Forest, Hampshire, and on the THE LYRE-BIRD. 177 lieatliery hills in Somersetshire, and the romantic glens of North Wales, he isstill to be seen. But nowhere is he so abundant as in the north of Scotland,where grouse shooting has become a yearly custom with the sportsman. The nest of the hen bird is in the shelter of some low bush or among thegrass. It is made of withered grass, and sometimes of twigs ; and the eggs areof an oval shape, spotted and dotted with brownish red. The bird places hernest in such a low situation, that in very wet seasons it is apt to be filled withwater. The hen performs the duty of rearing the young without

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