GEOGRAPHICAL RANGK. 113 



with in Russia, (including Finland * ), ic. Poland, and in 

 Siberia ; as also in Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, 

 and elsewhere in Continental Europe. " It goes as low 

 down in the south," so my friend, Mr. George Chichester 

 Oxenden, writes me, " as Carniola and Istria, where 

 I have found them freely, in both pine woods and hazel 

 copse." Dr. Latham states, indeed, that " these birds are 

 so numerous in a small island in the Gulf of Genoa that 

 the name ' Gelinotte Island' has been applied to it;" hut 

 it is almost everywhere a local bird, and pretty much con- 

 fined to wild and mountainous districts. Singularly 

 enough, the Hazel-Hen is not included in the Fauna of 

 Denmark, but Kjserbolling entertains the idea that it is 

 an inhabitant of Holstein, a former dependency of that 

 kingdom, but of which it was recently so shamefully 

 despoiled by Prussia and Austria. 



The Hazel-Hen. is perhaps the handsomest of the 

 grouse family ; but it is needless for me to speak of its 

 plumage, as the annexed illustration, by the late M. Korner, 

 will give a far better idea of these birds than can be 

 expressed in writing. I may mention, however, that it 

 measures fourteen to fifteen inches in length, and nineteen 

 to twenty from tip to tip of wing. But though its length 

 and alar expanse are greater than those of the partridge, 

 it strikes me that its hody is somewhat less than that of 

 the latter. In the more southern portion of the peninsula 

 it is said to attain a somewhat greater size than in the 



O 



far north, where its plumage is of a clearer colour, inclin- 



* M. Wilhelm von Wright mentions that on his father's estate alone, 

 in Finland, some three hundred Hazel- Hens were killed annually. And, 

 further, that " the Finns entertain the very singular notion that, at the 

 < Yea t inn, this bird was the largest of the feathered tribe ; but that year by year 

 it lias decreased in size, and will continue to do so until ;it last it will 

 become so very diminutive as to be able to fly through the eye of a needle; 

 and when that happens the world will come to an end." 



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