The Black Grouse (Merlin Unwin, £20) is Patrick Lurie’s first book and the first ever on the the subject. Lurie is a freelance journalist but his mission is to save tetrao tetrix britannicus (the britannicus added in 1913). He devotes much of his time protecting a black cock and a couple of its grey hens on 1,600 upland acres in Galloway; and has written a diary combined with a history of the species, touching on the evolution of landscape and shooting, as well as conservation politics. Sterile tree farms (forest too good a word) now carpet a quarter of once nature-rich Dumfries and Galloway.
The black cock with its lyre-shaped tale, which decorates (in replicated form) the pipers’ bonnets of the amalgamated Scottish regiments, must vie for the distinction of being our most exotic bird. Up to 1939 they could still be found on Wimbledon Common but today the main population is confined to the Highlands, the bird having declined 95 per cent overall during the last 100 years.
A varied habitat and vermin control are its only hope. These are best provided by sporting estates, the class enemy of the so-called conservation societies like the RSPB, who, absurdly for egalitarians, nurture raptors, the big bad barons of the bird world.
Lurie correctly sees shooting as the black grouse’s last chance of survival, and accordingly gets no answer to his calls for help from conservation agencies. He illustrates his labour of love with competent paintings and drawings. Good luck to him and his gallant enterprise.
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