THE GROUSE. 



i / 



tongue, and capable of holding near seven 

 quarts of water. 1 This is probably filled upon 

 proper occasions, to supply the hen when sit- 

 ting, or the young before they can fly. 



Like all other birds of the poultry kind, 

 they change their mates at the season of incu- 

 bation, which is about the latter end of sum- 

 mer. They separate in pairs, if there be a 

 sufficiency of females for the males : but when 

 this happens to be otherwise, the males fight 

 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 displeased 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, almost 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 ve- 

 getables. In some parts of Switzerland, they 

 are found frozen in the fields in severe wea- 



1 The reservoir is capable of holding only about half 

 the above quantity. 



The female bustard is not much more than half the 

 size of the male. The top of her head is of a deep or- 

 ange, and the rest of the head brown. Her colours we 

 not so bright as those of the male, and she wants the 

 tuft on each side of the head. She also wants the reser 

 voir. 



There are eleven species of this bird; viz. the Arabian 

 Passurrage, Ruffed, Indian, White-eared, White-chin- 

 ned, Thick-kneed, Chilese, Great and Little Bustard. 

 The two latter are natives of our island. 



The Little Bustard (See Plate XVIII. fig. 34.) 

 Length seventeen inches. The female is smaller, and 

 has not the black collar on the neck; in other. respects 

 she nearly resembles the male. This bird is very un- 

 common in this country but is common in France, where 

 it is taken in nets, like the partridge. It is a very shy 

 and cunning bird ; if disturbed, it flies two or three 

 hundred paces, not far from the ground, and then runs 

 away much faster than one. can follow on foot. The fe- 

 male lays her eggs in June, to the number of three or 

 four, of a glossy green colour : as soon as the young are 

 hatched, she leads them about, as the hen does her 

 rhickens. They begin to fly about the middle of Au- 

 gust. Both this and the great bustard are excellent 

 eating, and, we should imagine, would well repay the 

 trouble of domestication; indeed, it seems surprising 

 that we should suffer these fine birds to run wild, and be 

 in danger of total extinction, which, if properly cul- 

 tivated, might afford as excellent a repast as our own 

 domestic poultry, or even as the turkey, for which we 

 arc indebted to distant countries. 



ther ; but when taken to a warm place, they 

 again recover. They usually live fifteen 

 years, and are incapable of being propa- 

 gated in a domestic state, as they probably 

 want that food which best agrees with their 

 appetite. 



CHAP. 



THE GROUSE, AND ITS AFFINITIES. 2 



TKB cock of the wood, the black cock, the 

 grouse, and the ptarmigan these are all birds 



2 The high latitudes of North America produce nu- 

 merous species of grouse, most of which are peculiar to 

 that continent ; two or three of these are also found in 

 the parallel latitudes of Europe: while, on the other 

 hand, there are in Europe several species peculiar to our 

 portion of the globe, and of these one at least is very 

 limited in the extent of its habitat. Thus the lagopus 

 saliceti, or willow-grouse, (see Plate XVIII. fig. 17.) 

 which inhabits the fur-countries from the fiftieth to the 

 seventieth parallels of latitude, is also abundant in Scan- 

 dinavia, Kamtschatka, Greenland and Iceland. The te- 

 truo rupestris, or rock-grouse, which abounds in Melville 

 Island and the Barren Grounds, is common in Sweden 

 and Norway: while on the contrary the black grouse 

 (tetrao tetriai) is peculiar to Europe, as is also the caper- 

 cailzie (tetrao urogallus) : and the red grouse (lagopus 

 Scoticws) is even more circumscribed, being exclusively 

 a native of the British islands. 



We shall proceed to offer a few observations respec- 

 tively on the two groups into which the tribe of Euro- 

 pean grouse naturally divide themselves: these we may 

 characterize us forest-grouse, comprehended in the genus 

 tetrao, and as moorland or ptarmigan grouse, compre- 

 hended in the genus lagopus. It is in the genus tetrao 

 that the largest of the tribe are found ; but this genus is 

 by no means so numerous in species as that of lagopus. 

 The pine and birch forests which clothe the mountains 

 and hills of the colder latitudes are their abode ; they 

 seldom visit the open country, but prefer the densest re- 

 cesses of the wood, where they perch with ease upon 

 the branches. Shy, recluse, and wary, they retire from 

 the presence of the intruder, and seek refuge in the deep 

 wooded glens which intervene between the mountains, 

 where vast, morasses teem with a luxuriant growth of 

 willow, alder, birch, and trees of a similar nature. 

 Hence it requires much address and caution to approach 

 within range of gun-shot. Their food consists of the 

 tender shoots of pines, the seeds of plants, the berries of 

 various species ol vaccinium and arlutw, the buds of 

 the birch and alder, leaves and grain. In their habits 

 they are polygamous. As the breeding season draws on, 

 the male birds choose each for themselves a certain ter- 

 ritory, from which the possessor drives every intruding 

 rival. Desperate combats are then continually taking 

 place, the weaker or less fortunate being obliged to quit 

 the precincts of the station ; and it not unfrequently 

 happens that the contest terminates only with the deatii 

 of the defeated. Secure in his temporary dominion, the 

 proud victor raises a call of invitation morning and even- 

 ing, which resounds through the wood, and brings his 

 bevy of mates to the selected spot. The nest is very 

 simply constructed, consisting of dried grasses, and 

 placed upon the ground, sheltered among the herbage. 



The genus tetrao is characterized, among other points, 



