386 ON THE BIRDS 



The Grouse are shy and untameable, avoiding the settle- 

 ments of man, and retiring to wild and barren tracts, where 

 they associate in packs or families. The Lagopodes only live 

 in very numerous flocks, composed of several broods, which 

 do not disperse until they separate in pairs at the return of 

 the breeding season. Except in spring, the Grouse keep 

 always on the ground, perching on trees only to pass the night, 

 or when disturbed ; by day retiring to the deepest recesses of 

 the forest. The flesh of all is exquisite food, though dark 

 coloured in some and white in others. The black meat is 

 compact, juicy, and highly flavoured ; while the white has in 

 its favour, delicacy and lightness. 



The Grouse are distinguished by a short stout bill, feather- 

 ed at base ; they are of all gallinaceous birds those in which 

 the upper mandible is the most vaulted ; the feathers of the 

 bill are very thick and close, and cover the nostrils entirely. 

 The tongue is short, fleshy, acuminate, and acute ; and the eye 

 surmounted by a conspicuous red and warty naked skin. 

 Their legs are without spurs in either sex, and partly or 

 wholly covered with slender hair-like feathers, which in the 

 Lagopodes are thicker and longer than in the others, extend- 

 ing not only beyond the toes, but even covering the sole of 

 the foot, a peculiarity which, agreeably to the observation of 

 Buffon, is of all animals again met with only in the hare ; and 

 as if nature wished to carry her liberality to them still fur- 

 ther, this covering becomes longer and closer in winter. The 

 toes of the other species are rough beneath, and furnished 

 with a row of processes or pectinations each side. The 

 roughness of the sole appears requisite to enable the bird to 

 tread securely on slippery ground and frozen snow ; as well as 

 to enable them to grasp the branches of trees covered with 

 ice or sleet. In the Lagopodes, the nails are peculiarly 

 adapted for removing the snow from over the vegetables on 

 which they feed, and are for this purpose not only useful but 

 indispensable instruments. All the genus have short rounded 

 wings ; the first primary is shorter than the sixth, the second 

 being but little shorter than the third and fourth, which are 



