190 



BLACK GROUSE. 



BLACK GAME. BLACK COCK. 



Tetrao te.trix, PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



Urogallus minor, RAY. WILLOUGHBY. 



Tetrao (Quare, from the Hindoostanee Teetur.) TetrixThe same? 



*!T is a reverend thing,' says Bacon, 'to see an ancient 

 castle or building not in decay, or to see a fair timber tree 

 sound and perfect; how much more to behold an ancient 

 family which hath stood against the waves and weathers of 

 time.' While we utter a 'lament,' then, over the lost clan 

 of the Capercailzie, let us at least boast ourselves of his still 

 surviving cousin, the largest of our present game fowl, con- 

 spicuous for his size and jet black plumage, is a noble bird. 



Black Grouse are common in Russia, Siberia, and Lapland, 

 and are found in Germany, Poland, Holland, France, Swit- 

 zerland, and Italy along the Alps. 



In Yorkshire they are tolerably plentiful in some woods 

 near Sheffield, and one was captured in a street of that town, 

 in 1843; one was taken at Hebden Bridge, one near Hep- 

 tonstall, and one near Lightcliffe: in Northumberland they 

 are very abundant. Individuals have at different times been 

 turned out in Norfolk, and a few are still occasionally met 

 with in these localities; a female was shot at Clenchwarton, 

 near Lynn, about the last week in April, 1852. In Somer- 

 setshire, they breed on the Quantock and Blackdown Hills, 

 near Taunton, and also in Devonshire. A grey hen was 

 observed in Northamptonshire, in September, 1849, near 

 Cranford, the seat of Sir George Robinson, Bart., and after- 

 wards near Grafton Park;- the following May and June, her 

 nest containing ten eggs was observed. In Sherwood Forest, 

 Nottinghamshire, and the New Forest, Hampshire, it is also 



