598 



AVES — WOOD GROUSE. 



THE WOOD GROUSE* 





fs about the size of a turkey, and frequently weighs near fourteen pounls; 

 but the female is much smaller. The head and neck are ash color, crossed 

 with black lines; the body and wings chesnut brown, and the breast of a 

 very glossy blackish green. The legs are strong, and covered with brown 

 feathers. The plumage of the female differs from this description, it being 

 red about the throat, and having the head, neck, and back, crossed with red 

 and black bars; the belly barred with orange and black, with the tips of the 

 feathers white, as are also the tips of the shoulders. 



The cock of the wood, when in the forest, attaches himself principally to 

 the oak and the pine tree; the cones of the latter serving for his food, and 

 the thick boughs for a habitation. He feeds also on ants' eggs; which seem 



i Tctrao xirogallus, Lin. The conns tetrao has the bill short, thick, arched above, 

 convex, bent downwards towards the tip, base naked ; nostrils basal, half closed, with an 

 arched scale above, and connected by small feathers; eyebrows naked, with scarlet warts ; 

 tarsi feathered ; three toes before and one behind, united to the first joint; one toe behind, 

 margined with asperities. 



