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Accotmt of several New Species of Grouse (Tetrao) from North 

 America. 



At a late meeting of the Wernerian Society, James Wilson, 

 Esq. F. R. S. E., &c. gave a rletailed account of several new 

 species of grouse discovered by Mr David Douglas among 

 the Rocky Mountains in North America. He observed in 

 general, that birds of this genus are of a hardy constitution, and 

 patient of extreme cold. They only occur in northern or tem- 

 perate countries, and have not yet been discovered in Africa, in 

 the eastern parts of Asia, or in South America. The special 

 localities which they affect vary according to the different kinds ; 

 and even the haunts of the same species admit of variation ac- 

 cording to circumstances. The Wood Grouse — such as the 

 Capercailzie ( Tetrao Urogallus) — prefers forests of pine ; the 

 Red Grouse (T. Scoticus) restricts itself to the sides of sloping 

 mountains and moors, careless of more shelter than is afforded 

 by the heath, or other alpine plants of yet more lowly growth, 

 or even by the natural roughness of the ground. The habits of 

 the Black Cock are intermediate between those of the species just 

 alluded to. Ptarmigans (of which the species of Europe and 

 America are still insufficiently characterized and distinguished) 

 prefer, in comparatively temperate climates, such as that of 

 Scotland, the bare and stony sides and summits of our highest 

 mountains; but under the rigorous temperature of Greenland, 

 and the most northern parts of America, they ai-e chiefly found 

 by the sea-shore, and among the willow and other copse woods 

 of the lower and more sheltei'ed vales. The restriction of the 

 Common Grouse {T. Scoticns) to the two islands of Great Bri- 

 tain and Ireland, is a familiar though a singular fact in the geo- 

 graphical distribution of birds. The first and most remarkable 

 of the specimens to which it was Mr Wilson's more immediate 

 object to direct the attention of the Society, was the Tetrao 

 Urophasianus, or Pheasant-tailed Grouse, the largest of the 

 American species of this genus, and, excepting the Capercailzie, 

 the largest to be met with in any country. This bird seems to 



