00 BLACK GROl > 



berries of the different alpine plants ;* in winter, 

 the tender shoots of the fir, catkins of birch and 

 hazel, heath, and even the leaves of fern, and these 

 often give their peculiar flavour to the flesh. But 

 in the lower districts, where, indeed, this bird is 

 most abundant, the gleaning of the stubble yields 

 a plentiful meal, fields of turnip and rape are also 

 favourite feeding places, and the leaves supply a 

 more grateful food during hard frost than they 

 could elsewhere procure. In some places, flocks 

 of hundreds assemble at feeding times, and although 

 at this time they are extremely shy and wary, the 

 fences and enclosures often allow them to be ap- 

 proached within shot. 



The plumage of the adult male is on all the 

 npper parts of a rich steel-blue, on the lower parts 

 pitch-black, which duller colour is also seen on the 

 secondaries and wing-coverts ; the greater coverts 

 are tipped with white, forming a bar across the w: 

 conspicuous in flight, and the under tail-coverts 

 are of the same pure colour. In the full plumage, 

 immediately succeeding the moult, there is a tinge 

 of brown intermixed, which is changed as the 

 winter terminates ; but the most remarkable struc- 

 ture of this bird, is that of the tail, formed of 

 gradually elongated feathers, diverging or curving 

 outwardly, and when at the highest development, 

 expanding into a graceful lyre shaped tail. There 

 is nothing in the habits of the bird which corre- 



* Emvetna* nynuw, Vaccinium orycoccus, myrtilluSy ritis idea. 



