Red grouse by sheep. Conservation measures taken on foot of the judgment have seen the population in the area double from 400 to 800. The red grouse is considered a game bird and is shot in large numbers during the shooting season which traditionally starts on August 12, known as the Glorious Twelfth. There is a keen competition among some London restaurants to serve freshly killed grouse on August 12, with the birds being flown from the moors and cooked within hours. Shooting can take the form of 'walked up' (where shooters walk across the moor to flush grouse and take a
Ruffed grouse Ruffed grouse The ruffed grouse ("Bonasa umbellus") is a medium-sized grouse occurring in forests from the Appalachian Mountains across Canada to Alaska. It is non-migratory. It is the only species in the genus Bonasa. The ruffed grouse is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "partridge", an unrelated phasianid, and occasionally confused with the grey partridge, a bird of open areas rather than woodlands. The ruffed grouse is the state bird of Pennsylvania, United States. "Bonasa umbellus" was first described by Linnaeus who classified it as "Tetrao umbellus", placing it in a subfamily with Eurasian grouse. The subfamily "Bonasa" was applied