696 TETRAO 



marbled with, pale sandy brown ; breast and under parts black, the former 

 glossed with green ; abdomen blotched with white ; under tail-coverts 

 marked and tipped with white ; tarsi feathered to the feet ; feet dull 

 brown ; bill whitish horn ; iris brown. Culmen 2 -5, wing 14'8, tail 11*0, 

 tarsus 3*0 inch. The female is rather smaller, has the head, neck, and 

 upper parts and tail pale rusty red barred with black, many of the 

 feathers tipped with white ; tail tipped with white ; chin, sides of head, 

 neck, and breast pale rufous, the lower neck spotted with black ; rest of 

 under parts pale rufous sparingly barred with black, and broadly tipped 

 with white ; vent and tarsi whitish ; bill dull horn, paler at the base 

 below. 



Hal. The pine forests of Scandinavia, North Russia, extinct 

 but introduced into Scotland, the Pyrenees, Alps, and Car- 

 pathians ; North Asia, east to Lake Baikal, south to the Altai 

 and north-eastern Turkestan. 



Inhabits pine woods and feeds on tender conifer shoots, 

 berries, &c. The pairing game, or play (lek in Swedish), com- 

 mences early in spring, when the male, with drooping wings, 

 expanded and erected tail, and ruffled feathers, seated either on 

 a tree or strutting on the ground, utters his call, pcllep, pellep, 

 pellep, Jdickop hede, hcdc, hede, which is answered by a croak- 

 ing note, gock, gock, gock, by the female, and during this season 

 the males fight furiously for the possession of the females, who 

 after the pairing season retire to their breeding places. The 

 nest is a mere depression scraped in the ground under a 

 tree or bush, and the eggs, 6 to 12 or 15 in number, are de- 

 posited early in May, and are dirty yellowish spotted and blotched 

 with light brown and measure about 27 by T65. 



Hybrids between Tetrao tctrix and T. urogallus are not 

 uncommon, but those between Phasianus colchicus and 

 T. urogallus, and Lagopus albus and T. urogallus are much 

 rarer. 



973. SUBSP. TETRAO URALENSIS. 



" Tetrao uralemis, Severtz. and Menzb." Nazaroff, Bull. Mosc. Ixii. 

 part 2, p. 365 (1886, desc. null.) ; Menzbier, Ibis, 1887, p. 303 ; 

 Ogilvie Grant, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxii. p. 65 ; Dresser, ix. p. 331, 

 pi. 705. 



ad. (Ural). Differs from T. urogallus in being paler and greyer, 

 the tail conspicuously marked with white, and the abdomen white, but 

 slightly marked on the sides and upper parts with blackish. Culmen 2'4, 

 wing 15 -5, tail 12/25, tarsus 3'2 inch. The female is paler than that of 

 T. urogallus, the feathers on the upper parts have broad, white margins^ 

 and the abdomen is white with but few black and pale rufous markings, 

 the lower abdomen nearly pure white. 



