494 BLACK GROUSE. 



■our language as 'Grows.' The bird has been introduced near 

 Sandringham in Norfolk ; while it is scattered locally over the 

 wilder portions of the Midland counties, the Marches, and many 

 parts of Wales, and north of Sherwood Forest it is found in every 

 English county. In Scotland it is distributed, in varying numbers, 

 over the mainland and in many of the Inner Hebrides, but attempts 

 at introduction in the Outer islands, as well as in the Orkneys, 

 have not been successful. In Ireland it was never indigenous. 



The Black Grouse inhabits Scandinavia, Russia, the heath-clad 

 wastes of the east of Holland, the hilly districts of Germany 

 •and Central Europe, Switzerland (except the Jura), and the northern 

 Apennines. It is not found in the Pyrenees ; while in the Caucasus 

 it is represented by a smaller and more slender species, the male of 

 which has a deep glossy-black plumage and a remarkably developed 

 tail. Beyond the Ural Mountains the Black Grouse stretches across 

 the wooded regions of Siberia up to 67° N., and as far south as 

 Manchuria. 



Blackcocks are polygamous, and in spring they assemble before 

 dawn to fight for the hens, performing the most extraordinary antics 

 in order to prove attractive. When this lek is over they retire 

 with the females they have secured, and the latter make a slight 

 nest on the ground in which they deposit 6-10 eggs of a yellowish- 

 white spotted with orange-brown: average measurements 2 by i"4 

 in. The males have also a short " spel " in autumn, when they 

 separate from the females and fiock together. The young feed 

 largely on ants' eggs and other insect food, while whortleberries 

 &c., barley, the juicy seeds of rushes, and the tops and buds of many 

 other plants are favourite articles of diet with the adults ; abund- 

 ance of moisture being at all times essential. Interbreeding with 

 the Capercaillie has already been noticed ; it is not infrequent with 

 the Pheasant ; and it occasionally takes place with our Red Grouse, 

 the Scandinavian Willow-Grouse and the Hazel-Grouse. 



The general colour of the Blackcock is bluish-black ; the wing- 

 bar and the under tail-coverts being white. Length 23 in. ; wing 

 10*3. The Greyhen is chiefly pale chestnut-brown, barred and 

 freckled with black ; wing 9 in. The latter breeds in her first 

 spring, but the young males are liable to be driven away by the 

 older and stronger cocks. The young male is at first like the 

 female, but the dark plumage begins to show early in October, and 

 is nearly full by December, although the full development of the 

 out-curved tail-feathers is not attained till the third year. 



