16 VARIETIES OF SHOOTING. 



bird is nearly as large as the turkey, the female being con- 

 siderably less. The nest is made on the ground, and the hen 

 lays about eight or nine eggs. 



The BLACK GROUSE or BLACK-COCK (Tetrao tetrix), the 

 female of which is the GREY HEN, is chiefly confined in Great 

 Britain to Scotland, and the most northern counties of Eng- 

 land ; but it is also found in Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire, 

 Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Somersetshire, Worces- 

 tershire, Staffordshire, and Shropshire. On the Continent it 

 is common enough in the most northerly countries, especially 

 Scandinavia and Russia. The generic characters are as 

 follows : Body of the male black, with a beautiful glossy blue 

 over the neck and back; wing coverts brownish, greater 

 coverts white, forming a white spot on the shoulder when 

 the wing is closed ; tail black, and much forked ; legs and 

 thighs covered with mottled feathers ; toes toothed ; the eye 

 has a red spot above and a white one below it ; weight about 

 four pounds. The hen is only half the weight of the cock ; 

 in colour she is barred with dusky red and black above, and 

 dusky red and white below ; her tail is slightly forked, but 

 not nearly so much so as that of the cock. The length of the 

 black cock is twenty-two inches, of the grey hen seventeen to 

 eighteen. The nest is made on the ground, frequently under 

 a low thick bush, and with very few materials. The eggs 

 are about six or eight in number, of a yellowish white, 

 spotted and speckled with orange brown ; they are two 

 inches long, by one inch five lines. Black grouse do not 

 pair, and the tens are not attended by the cocks from the 

 time when the former begin to sit, after which the males 

 assemble together, and until the latter part of the season are 

 rarely seen to associate either with the young birds or with 

 the old hens. In their first plumage all the young birds re- 

 semble the hen, but towards the end of August or the be- 

 ginning of September, the young cocks moult and assume the 

 black colour peculiar to the adult condition of the sex. While 

 undergoing this transformation, these young birds are mottled 

 with black, and look very ragged and patchy; but as the old 

 cocks are tough and dry when dressed, these marks of youth 

 are eagerly sought after by the gourmand. A young black- 

 cock which has still a few grey feathers is in perfection, the 



