THE POULTRY KIND 



505 



against thirst. This is a pouch, the entrance 

 of which lies immediately under the tongue, 

 and capable of holding near seven quarts of 

 water." This is probably filled upon proper 

 occasions, to supply the hen when sitting, or 

 the young before they can fly. 



Like all other birds of the poultry kind, 

 they change (heir mates at the season of in- 

 cubation, which is about the latter end of 

 summer. They separate in pairs, if there 

 be a sufficiency of females for the males : but 

 when this happens to be otherwise, the males 

 fi^ht until one of them falls. In France, they 

 often find some of those victims to gallantry 

 dead in the fields, and no doubt are not dis- 

 pleased at the occasion. 



They make their nests upon the ground, 

 only just scraping a hole in the earth, and 

 sometimes lining it with a little long grass or 

 straw. There they lay two eggs only, al- 



most of the size of a goose egg, of a pale olive 

 brown, marked with spots of a darker colour. 

 They hatch in about five weeks, and the 

 young ones run about as soon as they are out 

 of the shell. 



The bustards assemble in flocks in the 

 month of October, and keep together till April. 

 In winter, as their food becomes more scarce, 

 they support themselves indiscriminately, by 

 feeding on moles, mice, and even little birds, 

 when they can seize them. For want of 

 other food, they are contented to live upon 

 turnip leaves, and such like succulent vege- 

 tables. In some parts of Switzerland, they 

 are found frozen in the fields in severe wea- 

 ther; but when taken to a warm place, they 

 again recover. They usually live fifteen 

 years, and are incapable of being propagated 

 in a domestic state, as they probably want that 

 food which best agrees with their appetite. 



CHAPTER XCV. 



THE GROUSE, AND ITS AFFINITIES. 



THE Cock of the Wood, the Black Cock, 

 the Grouse, and the Ptarmigan these are all 

 birds of a similar nature, and chiefly found in 

 heathy mountains and piny forests, at a dis- 

 tance from mankind. They might once in- 

 deed have been common enough all over Eng- 

 land, when a great part of the country was 

 covered with heath ; but at present their 

 numbers are thinned ; the two first of this 

 kind are utterly unknown in the south, and 

 have taken refuge in the northern parts of 

 Scotland, where the extensive heath^ afford 

 them security, and the forests shelter. 



The cock of the wood is sometimes of the 

 size of a turkey, and often weighs near four- 

 teen pounds; the black cock, of which the 

 male is all over black, though the female is 

 of the polour of a partridge, is about the size 

 of a hen, and, like the former, is only found 



a The size of this reservoir seems something exag- 

 gerated : for with an addition of nearly fourteen pounds 

 weight thrown forwards, the centre of gravity must be so 



with us in the highlands of Scotland ; the 

 grouse is about half as large again as a par- 

 tridge, and its colour much like that of a 

 woodcock, but redder; the ptarmigan is still 

 somewhat less, and is of a pale brown or ash- 

 colour. They are all distinguishable from 

 other birds of the poultry kind by a naked 

 skin of a scarlet colour, above the eyes, in 

 the place and of the figure of eye-brows. 



It seems to be something extraordinary, 

 that all the larger wild animals of every spe- 

 cies choose the darkest and the inmost re- 

 cesses of the woods for their residence, while 

 the smaller kinds come more into the open 

 and cultivated parts, where there is more 

 food and more danger. It is thus with the 

 birds I am describing: while the cock of the 

 wood is seldom seen, except on the inacces- 

 sible parts of heathy mountains, or in the 



much overbalanced, as to destroy its power of flight, and 

 impede its running. About half this quantity seems a 

 probable sufficiency for all its wants. 



