106 GAME BIRDS. 



confinement, and their eggs being incubated by the common hen, 

 after a sitting of twenty-nine days, and in other instances, placed 

 in the nest of the black grouse, and hatched by the female of that 

 bird, her own eggs being removed from her nest. She has been 

 found a most careful, persevering and attentive mother, and the 

 young birds have attached themselves to the quarters where they 

 were reared. They are abundant in Northern Asia, Russia, 

 Siberia, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Italy, and several parts of 

 the Alps. They are reckoned royal game, and the female is pro- 

 hibited, under a severe penalty, being shot. They are often do- 

 mesticated, and become so perfectly tame, as to feed out of the 

 hand; and are fed on spruce, fir, pine, juniper sprigs, and oats. 



THE BLACK GROUSE, BLACK COCK, OR HEATH FOWL, 



Is pretty generally spread over Europe, being found in France, 

 Germany, Russia, Sweden, Norway, &c., and the farther north 

 the more abundant. It is found in various parts of Great Britain, 

 in Scotland, the Hebrides, and in Wales. It has been shot in 

 the county of Sligo, in Ireland, where the breed was formerly in. 

 troduced, out of Scotland, but it is supposed to be extirpated 

 there. They are met with in Dorsetshire, Devonshire, the New 

 Forest in Hampshire, Ashdown Forest, in Sussex, Staffordshire, 

 and Shropshire, but, in those districts, are now less abundant 

 than formerly. 



They frequent moist fiats or meadows, with a rank and luxuriant 

 herbage, and where the glades or passes among the hills are 

 clothed with natural brush, of birch, hazel, willow, and alder, 

 and have a tangled bottom of deep fern. These afford an 

 abundant supply of food and shelter, from the cold at, night, and 

 from the rays of the midsummer's sun. 



The plumage of the adult male is, on the upper parts, of a rich, 

 steel-blue ; on the under parts, pitch black, which duller colour, also, 

 is seen on the secondaries and wing-coverts. The secondaries are 

 tipped with white, forming a bar across the wings, conspicuous 

 in flight, and the under- tail coverts are of the same pure white. 

 The form of the tail is, however, the most curious structure in 

 this bird, in being forked, and having the feathers bending out- 

 ward, and consists of sixteen black feathers. The thighs and 

 legs are covered with dark brown feathers : the toes resemble 

 those of the wood-grouse. The male bird weighs about four 

 pounds; its length one foot ten inches, its breadth two feet nine. 



