EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 273 



pale olive, spotted and blotched all over with dark red-brown. The 

 spots are frequently so confluent as almost entirely to conceal the 

 ground-colour. In fresh-laid eggs the brown is often very red, in 

 some instances almost approaching crimson ; it appears to darken 

 as it thoroughly dries, and sometimes almost approaches black. 

 When fresh laid the colour is not very great ; and before the eggs 

 are hatched the beauty of the original colouring is much lessened 

 by large spots coming off altogether, no doubt from the friction of 

 the feathers or feet of the bird when sitting. It is impossible to 

 distinguish the eggs of the Ked Grouse from those of the Willow 

 Grouse ; but those of the Ptarmigan are more sparsely marked 

 and are much buffer in general appearance. 



THE BLACK GROUSE. 



(Tetrao tetrix.) 



Plate 59, Fig. 7. 



The Black Grouse formerly inhabited the whole of Great 

 Britain, wherever suitable localities were to be found ; but in 

 many of these, especially in the south and east of England, it 

 has been exterminated, though in some it has been successfully 

 re-introduced. It also inhabits the pine and birch forests of 

 Europe and Siberia. In Scandinavia its range extends as far 

 north as lat. 69^° ; but in Russia and West Siberia, as far east 

 as the Yenisei, it scarcely reaches lat. 68° ; and in the valley of 

 the Lena it does not exceed lat. 63°. 



Eggs of the Grey Hen are rarely found before the beginning 

 of May. The site of the nest is varied, but generally well and 

 artfully concealed. It may be where a pine tree or a larch has 

 been snapped off by a winter storm, and its branches covered with 

 a luxuriant growth of bracken and brambles, or it may be under 

 a dense briar or bramble, or not unfrequently under a thick mass 

 of heather and fern. Very little nest is made. A hollow is 

 scratched out and lined with a few bits of herbage, fern-fronds, 

 scraps of heather, or bracken-stems. 



In this rudely-formed nest the Grey Hen (a name by which the 

 female is technically known) deposits from six to ten eggs. They 

 are yellowish-white or buff in ground-colour, spotted with rich 



