GROUSE 



393 



unknown. In North America, Greenland/ and Iceland it is repre- 

 sented by a very nearly allied form — so much so indeed that it is 

 only at certain seasons that the slight difference bet^yeen them can 

 be detected. This form is the L. riipestris of aiithors, and it would 

 appear to be found also in Siberia (This, 1879, p. 148).^ Spits- 

 bergen is inhabited by a large form which has received recognition 

 as L. hemileiicurus, and the northern end of the chain of the Rocky 

 Mountains is tenanted by a very distinct species, the smallest and 

 perhaps the most beautiful of the genus, L. leucurus, which has all 

 the feathers of the tail white. The very curious and still hardly under- 





-^^^fV^'-'V^ J^J. 



Blackcock. 



stood question of the Moult of the Ptarmigan could not be discussed 

 here, and reference can only be made to the shedding of its Claws. 

 The bird, however, to which the name of Grouse in all strict- 

 ness belongs (see p. 388, footnote 2) is Tetrao tetrix — the Blackcock 

 and Greyhen, as the sexes are with us respectively called. It is 

 distributed over most of the heath-country of England, except in 

 East Anglia, where attempts to introduce it have been only par- 

 tially successful. It also occurs in North Wales, and A^ery generally 



^ Examples from Greenland have borne the name of L, reinhardti, others 

 from Newfoundland L. welchi, and the islands of Unalaska and Atka are said to 

 present local forms distinguishable as nclsoni and atkhensis respectively {cf. 

 Ridgway, Man. N. Am. B. p. 201). 



2 I am indebted to Prof. Mitsukuri for specimens from Japan ; but I dare not 

 yet characterize them. 



