THE COCK OF THE VVOOD THE PARTRIDGE. 287 



Westmoreland, the highlands of Scotland, and other 

 extensive wastes. 



THE COCK OF THE WOOD 



is in size and importance the first of this tribe : it is 

 nearly as large as a turkey, and frequently weighs 

 above fourteen pounds; but the female 'is much 

 smaller. The head and neck are ash-coloured, and 

 crossed with black lines : the body and wings are of 

 a chesnut colour, and the breast is of a blackish 

 glossy green. The female is different in colour, be- 

 ing red about the throat, with the head, neck, and 

 back crossed with red and black bars: the belly is 

 strij. e d citssvn.se with orange and black, and the tips 

 of the feathers are white. The black cock is about 

 the size of a common hen, and when full grown weighs 

 about four pounds. The moor fowl or red game, 

 which is peculiar to the British islands, weighs about 

 nineteen ounces. All birds of the grouse kind, 

 among which the white game or ptarmagan must be 

 included) delight in the most barren heaths, the high- 

 est hills, or the thickest forests. Their food, is moun- 

 tain-berries and the tops of the heath plants; and 

 their tlesh is exquisitely delicate. 



THE PARTRIDGE 



is a bird that is every where well known, being com- 

 mon in every climate and in every country: in the 

 hyperborean regions, as in the torrid-zone. It seems 

 to adapt itself to *ach climate where it resides, lu 

 the countries within the arctic circle it is brown in 

 summer, but in winter changes its colour to white, 

 and it acquires a new covering of soft warm down, 

 which at that season grows underneath its feathers. 

 The wisdom and goodness of the Author of nature 

 aje exceedingly conspicuous in this particular, that in 

 the polar regions all animals acquire a covering per- 

 fectly adapted to the rigours of the climate, a circum- 

 stance which shews that the providential care of the 

 the Creator extends to all his creatures in every situ- 

 ation. 



Of partridges there are more than twenty species; 

 all of which may, however, be arranged in two grand 



