BLACK GROUSE, 



3i; 



M. Nilsson mentions an instance where tlie Black Cock 

 had been known to breed with the Barn-door Fowl, but the 

 clucks, very unfortunately, only survived a few days. 



In the adult male the beak is black ; the irides dark 

 brown ; semilunar patch of naked skin over the eye bright 

 scarlet ; the feathers of the head, neck, back, wing-coverts, 

 rump, and tail, black ; those of the neck and back margined 

 with shining bluish black ; the primary quill-feathers black, 

 with white shafts ; the secondaries and tcrtials black at the 

 end, but white at the base, forming a conspicuous white 

 bar below the ends of the great wing-coverts, which, with 

 the lesser coverts, are black ; the feathers of the spurious 

 wing with white spots at the base ; tail of eighteen black 

 feathers, of which three, four, and sometimes five of those 

 on the outside are elongated, and curve outwards ; the others 

 nearly equal in length, and square at the end : the chin, 



