PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 5 



4. Nest and Eggs. A depression in the ground, sometimes in woodland, 

 at other times in the open, is scratched out by the hen, and scantily lined with a 

 few leaves, pine-needles, moss, and feathers. 1 (PL LX.) Here she deposits her eggs, 

 usually 6 to 10 in number, though Mr. Gladstone records 12 and Dr. Westerlund 16 

 in one nest. The latter case would seem to be due to two hens laying in one nest. 

 The eggs are miniature capercaillie's ; yellowish white, sometimes with a distinct 

 reddish tinge, sparingly spotted and blotched with yellowish red or orange-brown. 

 Average size of 33 eggs, 2*0 x T45 in. [5O8 x 36'8 mm.]. Incubation, as this species 

 is polygamous, is carried on by the hen alone. Mr. W. Evans gives the period as 

 25 days (under hen), 26th day from laying of last egg ; Dr. Heinroth as 26 days, 

 and Mr. H. S. Gladstone as 24 days. Full clutches of eggs may be found from about 

 10th May onward, and second layings in June and July, but only one brood is reared 

 in a season. [F. c. K. J.] 



5. Food. The black-grouse is an omnivorous feeder, but shows preferences 

 when they can be satisfied. In summer grass points, blaeberry shoots, and young 

 heather-tops, ant larvae and other insect food. In autumn heather, seeds of grass, 

 and various rushes and sedges, grain, and turnips, and numerous berries and wild 

 fruits, such as cranberries, blaeberries, wild strawberries, and rowan-berries. In 

 winter and spring the shoots of larch and Scotch fir, and birch buds are greedily 

 eaten. The young feed chiefly on insect food, and are accompanied in their 

 search for food by the female, [w. P. P.] 



RED-GROUSE [Lag6pus lagopus scotictts (Latham). 2 Moorgame (Lanes.); 

 heathpoult ; red-game, muir-fowl, gor-cock (Scotland). As this species is 

 unknown in France and Italy, there are no popular names for it in those 

 languages ; German, Moorschneehuhri]. 



I. Description. The red-grouse may always be distinguished by the 

 blackish brown colour of the remiges, the feathered toes, and the absence of pectina- 

 tion along their margins. The sexes differ, and there are marked seasonal changes 

 of coloration. (PL 138.) Length 15-5 in. [393*7 mm.]. The general coloration in both 

 sexes shows an unusual range of variation. A typical male in its " breeding " dress is 



1 A nest has been recorded in a tree by Mr. H. S. Gladstone (Birds of Dumfriesshire, p. 322). 



1 Strictly speaking, as only one form of red-grouse is found in our islands (though the willow- 

 grouse has been recently introduced) binomials should here be used for this bird, but as this 

 might cause confusion with the Scandinavian willow-grouse, L. lagopus lagopus L., the distin- 

 guishing trinomial has been added. 



