GROUSE AND PTARMIGAN. 



399 



Black-Game. 



The next group of grouse we have to notice are the black-game, 

 which have the legs covered with feathers, but the feet naked, and 

 the sides of the toes furnished with horny conib-like appendages. Only two species 

 are known, the black grouse {Lyrubrus tetrix) of Europe and Asia, and the Caucasian 

 black grouse {L. mZolcosiewiczi). The two sexes are commonly known as black- 

 cock and grey hen ; and the males are distinguished by their general black plumage, 

 the peculiar shape of their tail, the outer feathers of which are elongate and curved 

 outwards at the extremity. In the blackcock the under tail-coverts are white, 

 while in the bird from the Caucasus these parts are black, like the rest of the 



•wr-^^..- 



WILLOW-GROUSE IN WINTER DRESS. 



plumage. The two species also differ in their changes of plumage ; in the former, 

 the young male assuming the black feathers of the adult more or less completely 

 by the first winter, while in the young male of the Caucasian bird a female-like 

 plumage is retained throughout the first winter and spring. During the autumn 

 moult, when the males are rarely met with, the black plumage of the head and 

 neck is replaced by brownish bufi" and black feathers, barred like those of the 

 female. No doubt this temporary change is protective, enabling the blackcock to 

 escape observation, when, owing to the heavy moult in their wings and tail they 

 are rendered almost incapable of flight. Black-game are polygamous, one male 

 pairing with a number of females, each of which undertakes the entire responsi- 



