TETRAO TETRIX. 



547 



which abound with birch, alder, and willow, near lochs and 

 morasses, are their favourite haunts. Being, like the last 

 species, polygamous, each cock selects a beat, from which it 

 drives away all intruders from its harem like a Turk, in doing 

 which, desperate encounters take place — the hens having no 

 choice, quite willing to go with the victor. Thus fortune 

 favours the brave, and thus, as Glenalvon says of Lady 

 Randolph, "The lion woos his bride." Although without spurs, 

 it fights the same as the game cock — lowers its head, ruffles its 

 feathers, and leaps. At his station early every morning and 

 evening he repeats his call of invitation to his different wives 

 — as willing to come as he is to call. He presses his wings to 

 the ground, crows, and struts like a turkey cock, at the same 

 time making a noise like the whetting of a scythe — like every 

 creature putting on Nature's best love dress, his plumage 

 showing the richest glosses, and the red skin of his eyebrows the 

 deepest carmine. And thus I saw them strutting on the side of 

 Loch Brora, in Sutherlandshire. Its habits are different from 

 the red grouse, as it prefers low marshy soil on the borders of 

 cultivation ; the other, high ground amongst heather. It is 

 found as far south as the Appenines, and as far north as 

 Lapland. It lays from six to ten yellowish-grey eggs, spotted or 

 blotched with reddish-brown, resembling the capercailzie's, 

 1-| by 1 J, which she covers when leaving. The nest is like a 

 gipsey's tent, of the simplest kind — a few stems and dry grass, 

 amongst high heath, brackens, or under a bush. When her eggs 

 are laid, the hen discards the male, her whole care being 

 incubation and rearing her young, in this resembling humanity, 

 only the male, as well pleased, takes no heed, and is not taxed 

 for teaching — like man. It lives on seeds, berries, shoots of 

 heath, insects, leaves, &c, sometimes corn and turnip tops ; in 

 winter on shoots of pines, birches, and alders. It abounds in 

 Scandinavia, where it is protected, the males only being 

 killed; great numbers sent to the London market. The 

 cock sometimes weighs four lbs., the female only two. It 

 is broadcast over Russia and in many parts of Siberia. It is 

 found in .Fife, and been shot near St Andrews, on Priormuir, 

 and Waterless ; often seen on Tentsmuir. On January 23rd, 

 1884, a grey hen (as the female is called) was shot at Prior- 

 muir, another on June 1st, 1888, and other two seen at three 

 in the morning amongst the heather, so they likely breed there. 

 On April 24th, 1894, two were seen in the old fir park on 

 Tentsmuir. The cock is much larger than the hen, often double 



