BLACK GROUSE. 355 



New Forest, and from thence along to the westward in 

 Dorsetshire ; they are found on Dartmoor and Exmoor, in 

 Devonshire, and are abundant on the property of Lord 

 Caernarvon near Dulvarton, on the north-eastern "border of 

 Devonshire, and the heaths of Somersetshire, from whence 

 they are found in Worcestershire and Staffordshire ; they 

 are found also on most of the extensive heaths of Shrop- 

 shire, and on the Beswyn chain near Corwen. They are 

 included in the Catalogue of the Birds of Lancashire, and 

 from thence become more plentiful on proceeding north- 

 wards. 



Black Grouse are common over nearly the whole of 

 Scandinavia. Linneus met with them on his tour high up 

 in the forests of Lapland ; they are found in Russia, Siberia, 

 Poland, Germany, Holland, France, and along the whole 

 chain of the Alps, and other mountain ridges that are 

 covered with forests, and, according to Savi, in Italy. 



Having mentioned the tendency among Pheasants and 

 Grouse to breed one with another occasionally, without 

 restriction to their own species, I may here particularise 

 the various examples of hybrids between the Pheasant and 

 the Black Grouse in the order in which they have been 

 recorded. The first is the bird noticed by Gilbert White, 

 of Selborne, of which a coloured representation is given in 

 some of the editions of his work. The subject being then 

 new, the real character of that specimen was a matter of 

 doubt, till more recent experience, and other examples, 

 seemed to confirm its origin. In June, 1834, the late Mr. 

 Sabine called the attention of the members present at a 

 meeting of the Zoological Society to a specimen of a hybrid 

 bird, between the common Pheasant and the Grey hen, 

 which was exhibited. Its legs were partially feathered ; 

 it bore on the shoulder a white spot, and its middle tail- 

 feathers were lengthened. It was bred in Cornwall. 



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