160 BIRD GALLERY. 



food consists of green leaves, seeds, grain, and many species of insects, 

 small snails, etc. The nest, a slightly lined depression in the ground, 

 is well concealed, and generally contains from twelve to twenty eggs, 

 which are laid in the end of April or the beginning of May. As many 

 as thirty-three eggs have been found in the same nest. Incubation 

 lasts from twenty-one to twenty-three days. The young are carefully 

 tended by both parents. 



Cromarty, June. 



Presented by G. A. St. Quintin fy W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, Esqrs. 



No. 66. BLACK GROUSE. (Lyrurus tetrix.) 



This species was formerly found in many suitable localities through- 

 out Great Britain, but in England it is now comparatively scarce or local, 

 except in the south-western counties. In Ireland it was never indi- 

 genous. Its favourite haunts are young plantations of fir, larch, and 

 birch situated in the immediate neighbourhood of moorland, but it is 

 also frequently to be met with on the open moor, far from any cover. 

 Berries and seeds of various kinds, and the buds of trees and plants, as 

 well as grain, are favourite articles of food. The male, commonly known 

 as the Black-cock, is polygamous and takes no share in the duties of 

 hatching the eggs and caring for the young. The female, or Grey-hen, 

 makes a slight nest in a hollow in the ground, concealed by heather or 

 dead bracken, and lays from six to ten eggs of a yellowish- white colour, 

 spotted with orange-brown. 



Perthshire, June. 

 Presented by C. S. H. Drummond- Moray , Esq. 



No. 67. CAPERCAILLIE. (Tetrao urogallus.) 



Though originally indigenous in the British Islands, this species, also 

 known as the Wood-Grouse, became extinct by the middle of the 

 eighteenth century. It was re-introduced from Sweden into Perthshire 

 in 1837, and is now abundant in the pine- and larch-forests of the central 

 districts of Scotland, where it appears to be increasing and extending 

 its range to other parts. Tender shoots of the Scotch fir, varied with 

 berries and grain in summer, form its principal food, and the flesh, 

 except in the case of young birds, is strongly flavoured with turpentine 

 and little esteemed as food. The male takes no part in the duties of 

 incubation or of rearing the young. The nest is a hollow scraped in 

 the ground near the trunk of a tree or under a bush, and the eggs, 



