160 BIRD GALLERY. 
food consists of green leaves, seeds, grain, and many species of insects, 
small snails, ete. The nest, a slightly lined depression in the ground, 
is well concealed, and generally contains from twelve to twenty eggs, 
which are laid in the end of April or the beginning of May. As many 
as thirty-three eggs have been found in the same nest. Incubation 
lasts from twenty-one to twenty-three days. The young are carefully 
tended by both parents. 
Cromarty, June. 
Presented by G. A. St. Quintin & W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, Esqrs. 
No. 66. BLACK GROUSE. (Lyrurus tetrix.) 
This species was formerly found in many suitable localities through- 
out Great Britain, but in England it is now comparatively scarce or local, 
except in the south-western counties. In Ireland it was never indi- 
genous. Its favourite haunts are young plantations of fir, larch, and 
birch situated in the immediate neighbourhood of moorland, but it is 
also frequently to be met with on the open moor, far from any cover. 
Berries and seeds of various kinds, and the buds of trees and plants, as 
well as grain, are favourite articles of food. The male, commonly known 
as the Black-cock, is polygamous and takes no share in the duties of 
hatching the eggs and caring for the young. ‘The female, or Grey-hen, 
makes a slight nest in a hollow in the ground, concealed by heather or 
dead bracken, and lays from six to ten eggs of a yellowish-white colonr, 
spotted with orange-brown. 
Perthshire, June. 
Presented by C. S. H. Drummond-Moray, Esq. 
No. 67. CAPERCAILLIE. (‘l'etrao urogallus.) 
Though originally indigenous in the British Islands, this species, also 
known as the Wood-Grouse, became extinct by the middle of the 
eighteenth century. It was re-introduced from Sweden inio Perthshire 
in 1837, and is now abundant in the pine- and larch-forests of the central 
districts of Scotland, where it appears to be increasing and extending 
its range to other parts. ‘Tender shoots of the Scotch fir, varied with 
berries and grain in summer, form its principal food, and the flesh, 
except in the case of young birds, is strongly flavoured with turpentine 
and little esteemed as food. The male takes no part in the duties of 
incubation or of rearing the young. ‘The nest is a hollow scraped in 
the ground near the trunk of a tree or under a bush, and the eggs, 
