BLACK GROUSE. 439 
In winter, when the bleak mountain-sides seem unable to support a 
bird of any kind, the Black Grouse lives on the willow-, fir-, and alder- 
buds, birch-catkins, sprouts of turnips, seeds, and the never-failing heather, 
and has been known to feed upon the leaves of the common polypody 
fern. During heavy snow-storms or in very severe weather in the high 
north of Europe, the Black Grouse sometimes burrows into the snow for 
shelter, only leaving its refuge to feed or when the storm has abated. 
The general colour of the adult male Black Grouse is black, shading 
into brownish black on the wing-coverts and wings, with purple reflections 
most brilliant on the back, neck, and breast; the axillaries, under wing- 
coverts, under tail-coverts, and a bar across the wings (formed by the 
greater wing-coverts being white at the base) are white. The thighs and. 
the feathers round the vent are mottled with white. The outermost 
feathers of the tail curve outwards, somewhat in the shape ofa lyre. Bill, 
feet, and claws brownish black; irides hazel. Above the eye is an erectile 
scarlet wattle. The female has the general colour of the plumage 
chestnut, shading into grey on the wing-coverts, breast, and under tail- 
coverts, and barred and vermiculated with black, There appears to be little 
difference between summer and winter plumage, but spring birds have all 
the appearance of being newly moulted. Males of the year show traces 
of the coloration of the female on the head, neck, innermost secondaries, 
wing-coverts, and upper tail-coverts, and the outefmost tail-feathers show 
little or no sign of being curved outwards, Young in first plumage of 
~ both sexes closely resemble females; but the male assumes his semi-adult 
plumage of the bird of the year in the first autumn. 
The Blackcock not unfrequently pairs with the female Capercaillie, and 
the produce is a very handsome bird, having a nearly square tail, inter- 
mediate in shape between the forked tail of the Black Grouse and the 
rounded tail of the Capercaillie. It is a somewhat curious fact, though 
probably conformable to a definite law, that the male hybrids, though 
intermediate in colour between the male Black Grouse and the male Caper- 
caillie, approach nearest the latter, whilst the female hybrid approaches 
nearest to the female Black Grouse. The influence of the male parent is 
apparently greatest upon the female hybrid, and that of the female parent 
upon the male hybrid, the former transmitting the influence of his mother 
and the latter that of her father. 
Hybrids between the Blackcock and the female Red Grouse sometimes 
occur; and the Blackcock has also been known to interbreed with domestic 
fowls, the Pheasant, and the Willow-Grouse. Barren females not unfre- 
quently more or less assume the plumage of the male, showing much 
purplish black on the back and breast, and having the tail shaped as in 
the male. 
