Solving the great grouse mystery

OUR jays, coal tits and stoats are deemed to be special. The Irish members of these species belong to unique Hibernian races and are not to be found elsewhere in the world.

Dippers too have their own local subspecies, although our variety of dipper is also found in the western isles of Scotland.

There is, however, another claimant to sub-species status; the red grouse of Irish mountains and bogs. Until quite recently it was regarded as special and in Ireland’s Birds, published in 1966, Robert Ruttledge declared that “the Irish red grouse, Lagopus lagopus hibernicus, is a subspecies peculiar to Ireland (and the Hebrides).”