BLACK GROUSE. 



Macpherson Grant, Esq., of Edinburgh, that gentleman 

 says, " When in Norway last summer, I saw, preserved at 

 Christiana, several specimens of hybrids between the Black 

 Cock and the Capercailzie, a circumstance said to be of not 

 very uncommon occurrence. I saw also in Mr. Eskmark^s 

 collection a specimen of hybrid betwixt the Black Cock and 

 the Ptarmigan, but which he told me was extremely rare." 



M. Nilsson mentions an instance where the Black Cock 

 had been known to breed with the Barn-door Fowl, but 

 the chicks, very unfortunately, only lived a few days. 



In the adult male the beak is black; the irides dark 

 brown ; semilunar patch of naked skin over the eye bright 

 scarlet ; the feathers of the head, neck, back, wing-coverts, 

 rump, and tail, black ; those of the neck and back mar- 

 gined with shining bluish black ; the primary quill-feathjers 

 black, with white shafts ; the secondaries and tertials black 



