TETRAONID.^=:. 



493 





THE BLACK GROUSE. 



Tetrao tetrix, Linnaeus. 



Birds of this species are generally known collectively as Black- 

 game, and in Devon and Somerset as Heath-poults ; the sexes being 

 distinguished as the Blackcock and the Greyhen. They are found, 

 in small numbers and locally, in Cornwall and South Devon, and 

 are tolerably plentiful on Exmoor, as well as on the Brendons and 

 the Quantocks, in Somersetshire; while they still maintain themselves 

 in Dorset, Wilts, and the New Forest district. In Sussex, Surrey 

 and Berkshire their presence is the result of reintroduction early in 

 the present century, and none are now to be found in Kent, where, 

 however, the species existed in the time of Henry viii. ; and it is 

 in an ordinance for the regulation of the royal household dated 

 from Eltham that the word ' Grouse ' makes its first appearance in 



