230 



AVES ORDER GALLIFORMES. 



sumption of three different styles of plumages, in summer, autumn, and 

 winter respectively, their plumage thus varying in accord with the colour of 

 the country which they inhabit. Thus, in summer, when 

 The True their surroundings are darkest, the plumage is of a dark 

 Grouse. colour ; in autumn, when the tint of the country is grey, they 

 become grey ; and, lastly, when the land becomes white from 

 its covering of snow, the willow-grouse again changes its plumage into snowy 

 white. In our red grouse (Lagopus scoticus), which is an insular form of the 

 "Ripa," the changes of plumage are quite different, and the bird always remains 

 dark-coloured throughout the year, the necessity for change on the ground of 

 protective resemblance to its surroundings having become removedin our island 

 climate. It is to be noticed as a curious fact that the willow-grouse, through- 

 out its changes, never loses its white wings. The nest of the red grouse is always 



upon the ground, and the birds are subject to 

 the attacks of many enemies, of which the 

 carrion and hooded crows are perhaps the 

 most active. Unlike some of the other grouse, 

 our British species has but one mate, and is 

 monogamous, the nesting season being in 

 April and May, though sometimes lasting into 

 the early days of June, as grouse are much 

 affected by the mildness or inclemency of the 

 season, and when the latter is wet, the number 

 of eggs laid is much smaller than in favourable 

 summers. The red grouse is essentially a bird 

 of the rnoors, and its place on the higher moun- 

 tains is taken by the ptarmigan (Lagopus 

 midus), which also inhabits the higher moun- 

 tains of Scotland and Europe generally as far 

 east as the Urals. 



The black grouse (Lyrurus) are represented 

 by two species only, one of which, L. tetrix l 

 is our British species, and extends in suitable 

 localities across Europe and Northern Asia to Eastern Siberia, being repre- 

 sented in the Caucasus by a second species, the Georgian black grouse 

 (Lyrurus mlokosiewiczi). 



These woodland grouse are the largest representatives of the family, and 



rank, indeed, among the largest of Game-Birds. They are peculiar to the 



Old World, where they inhabit the pine-forests of Europe 



The and Asia. Four species are known, our British capercailzie 



Capercailzies. (Tetrao urogallus) inhabiting certain parts of Scotland and 



extending its range through the pine-covered mountains of 



Europe and Asia as far as Lake Baikal. In the Ural Mountains it is 



replaced by T. uralensis, and again in Eastern Siberia by T. parvirostris, 



which is represented in Kamtchatka by T. kamtchaticus. They are woodland 



birds, and our own species feeds on the tender shoots of larch and spruce, 



as well as on various ground-fruits, in pursuit of which it sometimes 



quits its favourite fir- woods for the more open country. Like the black 



grouse, the capercailzie has several wives, and desperate fights take place 



amongst the males, who, at the commencement of the nesting season, are 



often shot by the hunter, as they are engaged in "laking," as it is called. 



The male resorts to some particular spot to utter his love-song, and becomes so 



Fig. 7. THE BLACK GROUSE 

 (Lyrurus tetrix). 



