4So BLACK GROUSE. 



our language as 'Grows.' A small colony exists near Sandringham 

 in Norfolk, and locally the species is scattered over the wilder portions 

 of the Midland counties, the Marches, and many parts of Wales ; 

 while north of Sherwood Forest it is found in every English county. 

 In Scotland it is generally distributed on the mainland and in many 

 of the Inner Hebrides, but attempts at introduction in the Outer 

 islands, the Orkneys and the Shetlands, 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, and the northern Apennines. There is some 

 evidence that by way of the Cevennes it has found its way to the 

 Eastern Pyrenees, but it is not found in the rest of that chain ; 

 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, and as 

 far as South Manchuria. 



Black-cocks 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 flock together. The young feed largely on ants' 

 eggs and other insect food, while whortleberries (S:c., barley, the 

 juicy brown seeds of rushes, and the tops and buds of many other 

 plants are favourite articles of diet with the adults ; abundance of 

 moisture being at all times essential. Interbreeding with the Caper- 

 caillie has already been noticed ; it is not unfrequent with the 

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

 Scandinavian Willow-Grouse and the Hazel-Grouse. 



The general colour of the Black-cock is bluish-black ; the wing- 

 bar and the under tail-coverts being white. Length 22 in.; wing 

 10 "5. The Grey-hen 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 dark plumage of the male is nearly 

 assumed by December, though the full development of the forked 

 tail-feathers is not attained till the third year. 



