BLACK GROUSE 



BLACK GAME BLACK COCK. 



PLATE CXXXIX. 

 Tetrao tetrix, 



THE nest of the Black Grouse is usually placed not 

 far from water, or in a marshy spot, among heath, 

 or in newly made plantations, and sometimes in hedge- 

 rows, generally under the shelter of some low bush, or 

 among high grass in some hollow, and is composed inarti- 

 ficially, but rather neatly, of grass and a few twigs laid 

 together. 



In the "Game Birds and Wildfowl" of Mr. Beverley 

 R. Morris,* the author says, speaking of the time after the 

 hen birds have commenced sitting : " They are deserted by 

 the cock birds, who again assemble in small parties, and 

 seek the secluded and quiet thickets, among which they 

 chiefly remain till they have completed their moult. They 

 are, during this seclusion, particularly timid and shy. The 

 female has thus the whole charge of hatching and bringing 

 up the young birds. . . . The packs of male birds are 

 sometimes very numerous, often amounting to from fifty to 

 seventy birds. The females also in autumn are occasionally 



* "British Game Birds and Wildfowl," by Beverley R. Morris, M.D. Fourth 

 Edition. London, J. C. Nimmo. 



