194 BLACK GROUSE. 



and on the sides speckled with white, and covered behind 

 with rounded scales; toes, rather small, brownish black, bare 

 of feathers, and with lateral fringes; the first is very small, 

 the second and fourth nearly equal, the third much longer, 

 the front ones connected by short scaly membranes; on the 

 first toe there are ten, on the second eighteen, on the third 

 thirty, on the fourth twenty-two, narrow plates. Claws, 

 blackish brown. 



The female, called the Grey Hen, is in weight about two 

 pounds; length, one foot five or six inches; bill, brown; 

 iris, hazel, over the eye there is a narrow red mark; head, 

 crown, neck on the back, and nape, yellowish red, barred 

 with brownish black, each feather on the head with three, 

 and on the neck with four bars of the latter; chin, throat, 

 and breast, yellowish red, barred with brownish black, the 

 bars larger and curved, the ends greyish white, the sides 

 more red; below it is greyish white, barred with black and 

 brown; the back above, yellowish red, more broadly barred, 

 the last bar forming a pointed patch; on the lower part it 

 is of a deeper red, barred with brownish black. 



The wings have a tuft of white feathers at the bend, as 

 in the male; they expand to the width of two feet seven 

 inches; greater wing coverts, greyish brown, their edges mottled 

 with red, the middle ones tipped with white; primaries, greyish 

 brown, also mottled on their edges with red; secondaries, 

 greyish brown, more widely mottled with red, and undulated, 

 and their tips white. The tail, very short, has the four outer 

 feathers a little longer than the others, but almost straight, 

 the tip greyish white; upper tail coverts, also darker yellowish 

 red, conspicuously barred with brownish black; under tail 

 coverts, greyish white, partially marked with irregular patches 

 of brown and red along the centre towards the end. Legs, 

 greyish white, obscurely mottled with reddish and blackish; 

 toes and claws, brown. 



The young do not entirely lose their early plumage till 

 towards the following year. 



In a considerable number of instances this species has been 

 known to pair with the Pheasant, in a few with the Ked 

 Grouse, and in one with the Common Fowl; also with the 

 Capercaillie, and, though very rarely, with the Ptarmigan. 

 In some instances the female has assumed to a considerable 

 extent the plumage of the male. Sir William Jardine men- 

 tions one, shot by the late Sir Sidney Beckwith, entirely of 



