TETRAONIN^S. LAGOPUS. 241 



each side elongated and curved outwards ; the general colour 

 of the plumage black, the neck and back glossed with deep 

 blue ; the lower wing-coverts, lower tail- coverts, and bases of 

 the secondary quills, white. Female with the tail slightly 

 forked, its lateral feathers straight ; the general colour yel- 

 lowish-red, spotted and undulated with brownish-black. 



Male, 23, 33, 10, 1, 2J, 2, T V Female, 18, 31. 



The Black Grouse is pretty generally distributed in Scot- 

 land, in many parts of which it is very abundant. It also oc- 

 curs in various parts of England and Ireland. The males se- 

 parate from the rest in autumn, and keep apart until toward 

 the middle of spring, when they engage in combats with each 

 other, and assume particular stations, where they strut and 

 invite the females with a loud harsh cry. The nest, com- 

 posed of grass and twigs, is placed on the ground, in shelter 

 of some low bush, or among rank grass. The eggs, from five 

 to eight or ten, are of a regular oval shape, two inches long, 

 an inch and seven-twelfths in breadth, yellowish- white, or pale 

 reddish-yellow, irregularly spotted and dotted with brownish- 

 red or blackish-brown. The males leave the females during 

 incubation. The food of this species consists in spring of 

 twigs and catkins of alder, birch, and willow ; in summer, of 

 tops of heath, Vaccinium Myrtillus, and Empetrum nigrum ; 

 in autumn, of heath, crowberries, cranberries, blaeberries, and 

 whortleberries ; in winter, of tops and buds of these plants and 

 of fir ; but at all seasons its staple food is heath and vaccinia. 

 Sometimes it makes excursions into the corn fields, in search 

 of seeds of the cereal plants. The flesh of this bird is lighter 

 than that of the Red Grouse, especially the smaller pectoral 

 muscles, which are nearly as light-coloured as those of a 

 Pheasant. Being in great request, great numbers are annually 

 killed. It has been known to breed with the Pheasant and 

 Red Grouse. 



Black Game. Black Cock. Grey or Brown Hen. 



Tetrao Tetrix, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 272. Tetrao Tetrix, 

 Temm. Man. d'Omith. ii. 460. Tetrao Tetrix, Black Grouse, 

 MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, i. 145. 



GENUS LXXXIII. LAGOPUS. PTARMIGAN. 



Bill short, strong, slightly curved ; upper mandible with 

 its dorsal line arcuato-declinate, the ridge convex, the sides 

 rounded, the edges sharp and overlapping, the tip thin-edged 

 and rounded ; lower mandible narrower, with the angle 



Q 



