66 TETRAONIDiE. 



semilunar, scarlet, erectile patches of naked skin over each 

 eye become inflated until they stand up firmly above the 

 crown of the head, but shortly after death they collapse, and 

 in autumn they are far less marked ; the beak is black ; 

 the irides dark brown ; the feathers of the head, back, wing- 

 coverts and tail, black ; those of the neck and rump metallic 

 blue-black ; the primary quill-feathers brownish-black, with 

 white shafts ; the secondaries and tertials black at the end, 

 but white at the base, forming a conspicuous white bar 

 below the ends of the great wing-coverts, which, with the 

 lesser coverts, are black ; the feathers of the spurious wing 

 with white spots at the base ; tail of eighteen black feathers, 

 of which three, four, and sometimes five of those on each 

 outside are elongated, and curve outwards ; the others nearly 

 equal in length, and square at the end ; the chin, breast, 

 belly, and flanks, black ; under wing-coverts, axillary plume, 

 and under tail-coverts, pure white ; vent, thighs, and legs, 

 juixed black and white ; toes and claws blackish-brown. 



The whole length is twenty-two inches. From the carpal 

 joint to the end of the wing, ten inches and a half: the form 

 of the wing rounded ; the first quill-feather about as long 

 as the seventh, the second about as long as the sixth, the 

 fourth rather longer than the third or the fifth, and the 

 longest in the wing. 



The female of the Black Grouse, usually called the Grey- 

 hen, has the beak dark brown, irides hazel ; the general 

 colour of the plumage pale chestnut-brown barred and 

 freckled with black : the dark bars and spots larger, and 

 most conspicuous on the breast, back, wings, and upper 

 tail-coverts ; the feathers of the breast edged with greyish- 

 white, particularly in old birds and in those from northern 

 latitudes ; under tail-coverts nearly white ; feathers on the 

 legs pale mottled brown ; toes and claws brown. 



The whole length is seventeen to eighteen inches ; from 

 the carpal joint to the end of the wing, nine inches. 



In the young in down a day or two old, the bill is 

 yellowish-brown ; the general colour is yellowish-buff', paler 

 below : ruddier, with dark mottlings, above ; a dark brown 



