BLACK-COCK. 



K ' '< .. K 



most favourable to their increase. 1 hiring the montlis of autuiuu and 

 winter the male* auociate, and lire in flocks, but separate in M 

 April ; and, being polygamous, each individual chooses some pa> 

 HUtion, from whence he drives all intruder*, and for the possession of 

 which, when they are numerous, desperate contests often take place. 

 At thin station he continues every morning during the pairing 

 (beginning at day-break) to repeat hu call of invitation t th 



won 

 ,e other 



rally in tin- midst of high tuft of heath." This Tetrix, then, whieh 

 the Athenians called Otirax, won not improbably our I 



Pliny's deseripti.-n leap, x.xii. lil>. X.)" Decet tatraonas suuii uitor 

 absolutaque nigrii .-iliis cocci rubor" looks very like our 



bird, though the passage occurs in his chapter on Geese, and so it 

 struck Belon. The tetnones mentioned in company with the peacocks, 

 guinea-fowls, and phusanto, in chap. .\ii. of Sm-tonni- (in Culig.') were 

 probably the same. 



Black-Cock (Tetrao ttlr'u}. 



sex, displaying a variety of attitudes, not unlike those of a turkey- 

 cock, accompanied by a crowing note, and one .similar to the noi.se 

 made by tin- whetting of a scythe. At this season his plumage 

 exhibits the richest glosses, and the red skin of his eyebrows assumes 

 a superior intensity of colour. With the cause that urged their tem- 

 porary separation their animosity ceases, and the male birds again 

 associate and live harmoniously together. The female deposits her 

 eggs in May ; they are from six to ten in number, of a yellowish-gray 

 colour, blotched with reddish-brown. The nest is of most artless con- 

 struction, being composed of a few dried stems of gross placed on the 

 ground, under the shelter of a tall tuft or low bush, and generally in 

 marshy spots where long and coarse grasses abound. The young of both 

 exes at first resemble each other, and their plumage is that of the hen, 

 with whom they continue till the autumual moult takiw place; at this 

 time the males acquire the garb of the adult bird, and quitting their 

 female parent join the societies of their own sex. The food of the black 

 grouse, during the summer, chiefly consists of the seeds of some 

 species of J uncut, the tender shoots of heath and insects. In autumn the 

 Crowberry or(,'rawcrook(y>e/ru> uh.-n-yi l' 



ozycoecof), the Whortleberry ( r.i.-.-uii/ Vitii M"M, ami tlif Trailing 

 Arbutus (Arcl(icla/>/i.ylot l.'ra. I'm}, afford it a plentiful subsistence. 

 In winter, and during severe and snowy weather, it eats the tops and 

 bod* of the birch and alder, as well as the embryo shoots of the fir 

 tribe, which it is well enabled to obtain, as it is capable of perching 

 upon trees without difficulty. At this season of the year, in situations 

 where arable land is interspersed with the wild tracts it inhabit*, 

 descending into the stubble grounils, it feeds on grain." 

 Linnaeus says that the young are brought up upon gnats. 

 That the Black-Cock was known to the ancient* then i < httl.- d..ubt. 

 Aristotle, in the first chapter of his lith book, where he is speaking 

 of the nidification of birds, says that " Those which are not strong of 

 flight, such as partridges and quails, do not lay in ncHtn (properly so 

 called) but on the ground, merely collecting together materials (CATJC) : 

 so also do the larks (itipvSit) and the tetrix." At the end of the 

 chapter be say*, " But the Tetrix, which the Athenians call Ourax, 

 neither make* its nest upon the bare ground nor yet upon trees, but 

 upon low plants (M roa x a f uu (fa" fwro) :" answering to Tern 

 minck's description "niche dans les bruycres ou dans les buissons:" 

 to 8elby*s " under the shelter of a tall tuft or low bush, generally 

 where long and coarse grasses abound :" and to Oraves's " on any 

 dry gnus or heath, without any appearance of a nest, but most gene- 



y Hen (Tttraa trtrix), female. 



The flesh of the Block Grouse ia much esteemed. The different 

 colour of the flesh of the pectoral muscles must have struck r,c iv 

 one. The internal layer, which is remarkably white, is e.-i 

 most delicate portion. Belon goes so far as to say that the three pec- 

 toral muscles have three different flavours : the first that of Ix-ef, Ox- 

 next that of partridge, and the third thut of pheasant. 



if ale. Weight of a fine specimen about 4 pounds ; 1 .ill dunky block ; 

 irides hazel; head, nnk, breast, bock, and rump glossy block, *lu>t 

 with steel-blue ami purple; eye-brows naked, gran ! of a 



bright vermilion red; belly, wing-coverts, and tail piteh black; 

 secondaries tipped with pure white, and forming with the n> i hlmuv 

 ing coverts a band across each win : und.-r tail-coverts pure 

 legs furnished with hair-like feathers of a dark-brown, spei-kl. d with 

 gray ; toes pectinated ; toil block the exterior feather* bend ou: 

 and are much longer than those in (lie middle : this I 

 the Singular eur\.itmv and f>u -.. the tail which i! 



the bird. 



Femalt. Weight about '.' pound* : f.-n.-ral e..l.iiirferri!.-iiio us, barred 

 and mottled with block above, paler In-low, with dusky and brown bars ; 

 under tail-coverts white, streaked with blark ; t 

 speckled with black, showing a slight di 

 with grayish white. 



No person d to kill, destroy. . buy, o,- ha\.- in 



his possession : F'-wl, eonnuonl 



the 10th of Etooemtwrand SOthof August. The limitation in th. 

 Forest, Somerset, and Devon is greater, being from the loth of 

 December to the 1st of September. 



HI/I 



Several well-authenticated instances have occurred of 1. 

 between the Common Pheasant and the Ura\ lien. White, in his 

 v of Sell>orni-,' gives an 110-01 mt of a bird, of whieh th.. Ib-.i. 

 and i:. v. W. II. -i-lnTt says, in a note to White's ' S :;:!, " I 



oaw this curious bird stuffed in the collect!. m of th. I 

 at Petworth, and I have not the slightest hesitation in pron. -urn-ing 

 that it was a mule, between the black cock and the common ph- 

 1 did not entertain the slightest donb- n.. Mr. Markwick's 



suggestion that the bird may be an old ireak. II'- 



might as well hnve said an ostrieh. N.ith.r colour 



had tho bird the least affinity to a pea fowl. I can also most posi- 



