1MT 



TETRAONID.E. 



TETRAONIDJE. 



1019 



lie, or Cock of the Wood ; T. kybridtu, Spurm. (7*. mediia. Meyer), the 

 Hybrid Grouse, generally considered by ornithologists to be a hybrid 

 between the Capercailzie and the BUck Cock; T. Telrij- (genua 

 Lymnu, Sw.), the Black Grouse, or Black Cock ; Banana Europcra, 

 the Haxal-Grotue, or Geliootte ; Lagopu* Scoticiu, the Red Grouse ; 

 L. auttu, the Common Ptarmigan ; L. temtlrit, the Rock Ptarmigan ; 

 L. Saiictti, the Willow-Ptarmigan ; L. brachydactyliu, the Short-Toed 

 Ptarmigan ; PleivcUt artnarita, the Sand-Grouse ; P. tttaritu, the 

 Pin-Tailed Sand-Grouse. 



Of them the Black Cock, the Red Grouse, and the Common 

 Ptarmigan, are British; to which we may now add the Capercailzie, 

 restored by the care of the Marquis of Breadalbane and others. 

 [CAPEBCALI.] 



Layoptu uiutui, tho Common Ptarmigan, may be taken as an 

 example. 



Common Ptarmigan (Lafnput mvtta) In winter and summer plumage. (Gould.) 



This bird is supposed by some, and with good reason, to be the 

 Lagoptu of Pliny (' Nat Hist,' lib. x., c. 48), who notices its excellent 

 flavour, and states that iU feet, with their ' hare-like hair,' gave the 

 bird iU name. It is the Telrao lagojnu of Linnietis ; Lagopta rulgarit 

 of Fleming : Pernice de Montagna, Pernice Alpestre, and Lagopo 

 1 lianco, of the Italians ; Perdris Blanche and Gclinute Blanche of the 

 Kiench ; Perdiz Blancaof the Spauish ; Schneehuhn and Haaseufiissige 

 Waldbuhn of the Germans; Rype of the Norwegians; Riupkarre 

 (male), Riupa (female), of the Icelanders ; Tarmacban of the Northern 

 Oarl ; and Coriar yr Alhan of the Welsh. 



The winter plumage of the male is pure white ; a black band pro- 

 ceeding from the angle of the bill and traversing the eyes ; lateral 

 tail-feathers black, terminated by a white border ; feet and toes well 

 covered with woolly feathers ; above the eyes a naked space, which is 

 terminated l.y a small dentilated membrane ; these naked parts are 

 red ; claws hooked, subulate, and black ; bill black ; iris ash-coloured. 

 length about 16| inches. 



The winter plumage of the fcmsle differ* from that of the male in 

 having the naked space above the eye less, and no black eye-band. 

 Smaller than the male ; the length about 14 4 inches. 



It is found in the north of Europe : Lapland, Norway, Sweden, 

 Huuia. The alpine districts of the middle and south of Europe. 

 North America : the islands lying in the south-west of Baffin's Bay 

 (Sabine) ; high bills keeping near the snow-line ; Churchill Kiver 

 (Franklin : Richardson.) 



In the British Inlands it was formerly found in the north of 

 England, and, as its Welsh name indicates, in Wales ; but it no longer 

 occurs in those localities, nor is it to be met with in Ireland. 



On all the elevated summit* of the north of Scotland it ia not 

 uncommon ; and on most of the Grampians, but especially the great 

 granite and slaty masses from which issue the sources of the Dee, 

 the Spey, and the Tay, it may be said to be even abundant Great 

 numbers are annually killed, but as the haunts of this Ptarmigan are 

 not so easily accessible as those of the brown species (Layojnu Scolictu), 

 it is not at all likely to be exterminated. 



The summer food of the Ptarmigan consists principally of alpine 

 berries, and in winter of tho shoots of young heath. 



This species has been reared in confinement without any great 

 difficulty, and has bred in a tame state. (Selby.) 



Large numbers of Ptarmigan are sent from Norway to London every 

 winter. In Norway the peasants take them in snares. The captured 

 birds are kept in a frozen state till the dealers come, and one of these 

 dealers will sometimes buy and sell 60,000 ptarmigans in a season. 

 According to the calculation of Sir Arthur de Capell Brooke, 60,000 

 of these birds were killed during one winter in a single parish, which 

 was however large. Mr. Grant informed Mr. Yarrell that he was 

 assured, wh< n in Norway, that the number of ptarmigan killed in 

 that country every winter was beyond belief : 2000 dozen, if Mr. Grant 

 remembered right, was the quantity exported from Drammen in one 

 ship for KiiKlnml in 1830; and great numbers, be adds, are sent to 

 the Copenhagen market. Mr. Yarrell goes on to state that, besides 

 those brought to this country from Drammen, great quantities are 

 alto received in London, during the months of February, March, 



April, and May, from Bergen, Drontheim, and other ports on the west 

 coast of Norway, whence conveyance is obtained for them in the boats 

 which bring constant supplies of lobsters to the London market. 

 " On one occasion," says Mr. Yarre'.l, " late in the spring of 1839, one 

 party shipped 6000 ptarmigan for London, 2000 for Hull, and 2000 

 for Liverpool ; and at the end of February, or very early in March of 

 the present year (1840), one salesman in Leadeuhall market received 

 15,000 ptarmigan that had been consigned to him ; and, during the 

 same week, another salesman received 700 capercailliea and 560 black 

 grouse." 



Pttroclu arenariui, Temm., Barbary snd Senegal; P.guttatut, Licht, 

 Egypt ; P. quadricinctiu, Temm., Senegal ; P. coronatut, Licht, Nubia ; 

 P. LicMentitinii, Temm., Nubia; P. tricinctut, Swain., Senegal; P. 

 rxuttut, Temm., Egypt and Senegal ; P. tachypdet. Temm., South 

 Africa; P. bicinctut, Temm., South Africa; P. rimplcjr, Roux., South 

 Africa ; P. maculottu, Burcbell are, according to Dr. Andrew Smith, 

 all African species. 



As an example of the African forms, we give a representation of 

 P. gutturalit. 



I'lerocla fxlluialit, male and female. (<mitli.) 



Dr. Smith states that this species was first discovered in 25 40 

 N. lat, about SO miles to the eastward of Latakoo ; and it W.IK when 

 he remarked its cry to differ from that uttered by Ptcroclct lad, 

 Temm., that he was led to suspect that it was distinct He says tluit, 

 in common with the other South African species of thin genus, it 

 repairs in large Bocks at regular and fixed periods to localities where 

 water is, and that at such times specimens are most readily procured ; 

 but he warns the sportsman to be quick in his movements, as tlu-y 

 scarcely reach the water before they are again on the wing. An they 

 approach and recede from such spots, they almost incessantly utter 

 cries resembling ' twet weet, twet weet' 



/'. Klnrint, the Pin-Tailed Sand-Grouse, Gauga Cata, is an example 

 of the Grouse of Asia. 



This bird is very numerous on the arid plains of Persia. Not very 

 numerous in France, on the sterile Landea near the Pyrenees, tunl 

 along the coasts of the Mediterranean ; less common in Provence and 

 Dauphind, where they occasionally arrive: more common in .Spain, 

 Sicily, Naples, and throughout the Levant Temminck, who given 

 these localities, state*, in the fourth part of his 'Manuel,' second 

 edition, that it is common in Provence, in the uncultivated plains of 

 ('ran, and says that it avoids cultured tracts, and only inhabit* tin; 

 sterile Lindcs of the south ; but he adds that it is abundant in tlw 



