BRITISH BLACK GROUSE. 357 



The male has the upper parts and much of the under parts 

 black, dusted and speckled with grey ; the feathers of the neck 

 are elongated and are spread during display ; the coverts are 

 reddish brown with white speckles and tips, and both primaries 

 and secondaries, as well as the feathers of the flanks, show a 

 good deal of white on their margins or tips. The tail has a 

 terminal white band in fully mature birds. Above the eye is 

 a long vermilion wattle ; the heavy bill is yellowish white, and 

 the irides are brown. The female is reddish brown, mottled 

 on the upper parts with black, buff, and white ; the under parts 

 are barred with buff, black, and white. Ogilvie- Grant shows 

 that there is an extra summer or " eclipse " plumage. Young 

 birds closely resemble the hens, and young males do not acquire 

 the white tail band until the second or third year. The size 

 varies greatly. Male : Length, 33-35 ins. Wing, 14*8 ins. 

 Tarsus, 3 ins. Female: Length, 22-25 i'^s. Wing, 12 ins. 

 Tarsus, 2*2 ins. 



British Black Grouse. Lymms tetrix brifannkiis 

 Witherby and Lonnberg. 



For long it has been known that the Red Grouse differs from 

 its Continental allies, but in 191 3 Mr. Witherby and Dr. Lonn- 

 berg showed that the British Black Grouse was also an insular 

 race, the distinctions being constant in the female. It differs 

 mainly from the European bird, which ranges from Scandinavia 

 to Switzerland, in more diffused rufous tints — less sharply con- 

 trasted — and in the absence of white tips and grey markings 

 on many feathers on the wing-coverts, breast, and other parts. 

 The British Black Grouse (Plate 156) has a wide but rather 

 uneven distribution in Scotland and northern England, but is 

 less frequent in Wales and the south-west, and in the south and 

 east absent or a mere accidental straggler. Various attempts 

 have been made to introduce it in fresh localities, but with 



