[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
IS called by some Ornithologists the Moor-Cock and Red Game. The beak is black and short; over the eyes there is a bare skin of a bright red. The general colour of the plumage is red and black, variegated and intermixed with each other, except the wings, which are brownish, spotted with red, and the tail which is black; the legs are covered with long thick feathers down to the very toes. This bird is common in the north of England, and in Wales, and not only affords great diversion to the noblemen and gentlemen of those counties who are fond of shooting, but also repays them handsomely for their trouble, as the flesh of this wild fowl is very delicate and holds on our table a place level with the partridge and the Pheasant. The hen lays seven or eight eggs of a red-black colour,
“Where smooth, unruffl’d by the northern blast,
The chrystal lakes, in alpine rocks enshrin’d,
Reflect the verdant scene, and gently bathe,
With silver waves arouņd the grass grown feet
Of woody hills. There to his cackling dames,
On blooming heaths and secret lawns dispers’d,
The Gor-cock calls, the sultan of the grove.”
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