306 TETRAONID.E. 



the month of August, being then more than half grown, begin 

 to show some of the black feathers which distinguish the sex, 

 and which first appear in spots and patches about the sides 

 and breast. The change to the complete dark plumage goes 

 on in some instances so slowly that I lately saw a young male 

 of the season of 1839, which retained a few brown feathers 

 as late as the middle of the month of February 1840. 



In the summer these birds live upon seeds, the tender 

 shoots of heath, leaves, and some insects. In autumn they 

 feed on berrfes of various sorts, occasionally visiting cornfields 

 and stubbles ; and in winter I have found their crops dis- 

 tended with the tips of the most recent shoots of pines and 

 firs. 



The supply of these birds to the London poulterers is very 

 large and continuous, from the end of August till the follow- 

 ing month of April ; during the first four months from Scot- 

 land, and afterwards from Norway and Sweden. Grouse 

 shooting commences in Norway on the first day of August ; 

 and so numerous are these birds in some parts of Sweden, 

 where they are strictly preserved, Avhere the hens are never 

 shot at, and no spring shooting allowed, that one hundred 

 Black Cocks have not unfrequently been killed in one day. 



In the southern parts of England, Black Grouse are found 

 in Sussex on Ashdown Forest ; in Surrey on St. Leonard's 

 Forest, near Horsham, and from Pudmores along the brows 

 of the heath-hills towards Tilford, and again from Tilford up 

 to the DeviFs Punch-bowl on Hindhead. In 1815, H. M. 

 Thornton, Esq. of Chobham, brought two Black Cocks and 

 three Grey Hens from Holland. These birds were turned 

 out on the Hurtwood, a tract of heath between Guildford and 

 Dorking. At that time this species of game had been ex- 

 tinct in that part for fifty years ; but these foreign birds, 

 being well preserved, have replenished the district. They 

 bred the following spring after their introduction, and the 



