THE BLACK GEOUSE 



(Tetrao tetrix) 



ALTHOUGH it is nowhere so common, the Black Grouse is 

 much more widely dispersed than its congener, the Eed 

 Grouse. Its home, it is true, is on the moorlands, but low down 

 the hillsides, where the pine woods, fir plantations, and birch 

 coppices furnish the bird with abundant cover. It frequents 

 the borders of the moors, where the groups and plantations 

 of pines, alders, and birches form the boundary line between 

 the cultivated district and the wild. It loves the sheltered 

 hollows just below the moors, where the ground is thickly 

 overgrown with heath and bracken, and where the briars and 

 brambles throw their long wires over the masses of rock, and 

 twine and twist amongst the bilberries and cranberries; 



