136 TETRAO. GROUSE. 



Plumage full, close, compact or blended. The feathers at 

 the base of the bill small, on the head oblong ; on the body 

 generally oblong; more than half of their length is downy, 

 and the plumule is nearly as long ; the tube short, enlarged 

 at the base. The feathers on the hypochondrial species and 

 abdomen downy. The wings are short, broad, curved, and 

 much rounded ; the primary quills ten, strong, narrowed from 

 near the base, the fourth longest, the third and fifth nearly as 

 long, the first longer than the eighth ; the secondary quills from 

 fifteen to eighteen, decurved, rounded. Tail of sixteen or 

 eighteen feathers, varying in length and form. 



The Grouse, of which only a single species exists in Britain, 

 but of which there are several on the continent of Europe, and 

 many more in Asia and America, are generally strong, heavy 

 birds, varying in size from that of a Turkey to that of a com- 

 mon Pigeon. They live upon vegetable substances, twigs, and 

 leaves of trees and shrubs, grasses, berries, and seeds. Al- 

 though they generally gather their food on the ground, some 

 of them also betake themselves to trees for that purpose, and 

 many of them perch on occasion. The food is collected in the 

 crop, where it remains unaltered, or merely becomes moistened. 

 It gradually passes into the gizzard, where, besides being mixed 

 with the proventricular fluid, it is triturated by the action of 

 the muscles, and the rugse of the cuticular lining, aided by 

 numerous particles of quartz. Thus comminuted, it passes 

 into the intestine in a pulpy state, but with the vegetable fibres 

 still distinct, and is there further diluted. As it passes down- 

 ward, the mass gradually becomes more dry, and at length 

 enters the rectum in a concrete form ; but in passing the coeca, 

 all the finer parts remaining are carried into them, and there 

 subjected to further elaboration and absorption. The foeces 

 form a heap of cylindrical fragments. 



The species have a strong, often rapid, and protracted flight, 

 which is performed by quick beats of the wings, with occasional 

 intermissions. They walk and run with agility, and fre- 

 quently prefer eluding their enemies by skulking among the 

 shrubs and herbage to flying off to a covert. They nestle on 

 the ground, producing numerous eggs, generally spotted, cloud- 



