AVES — WOOD GROUSE. 599 



a high delicacy to all birds of the poultry kind ; cranberries are likewise 

 often found in his crop. The female is much less than her mate, and en- 

 tirely unlike him in plumage, so that she might be mistaken for a bird of 

 another species. She seldom lays more than six or seven eggs, which are 

 white, marked with yellow, of the size of a common hen's egg. She gene- 

 rally lays them in a dry place and mossy ground ; and when she is obliged, 

 during the time of incubation, to leave her nest in quest of food, she covers 

 them up so artfully with moss or dry leaves, that it is extremely difficult to 

 discover them. 



As soon as the young ones are hatched, they are seen running with ex- 

 treme agility after the mother, though sometimes they are not entirely dis- 

 engaged from the shell. They soon come to perfection ; they are a hardy 

 bird ; their food lies every where before them, and it would seem that they 

 should increase in great abundance. But this is not the case ; their num- 

 bers are thinned by rapacious birds and beasts of every kind, and still more 

 by their own salacious contests. At sunrise and setting, during this season, 

 the male may be seen extremely active upon one of the largest branches of 

 a pine tree ; his tail raised and expanded like a fan, his wings drooping, his 

 neck stretched out, and his head swoln and red. His cry upon this occasion 

 is a kind of loud explosion, followed by a noise like the whetting of a scythe. 

 While under this influence, they fight each other like game-cocks ; and are 

 so inattentive to their own safety, that it often happens that two or three of 

 them are killed at a shot. It is probable that, in these contests, the bird 

 which comes off victorious takes possession of the female seraglio, as it is 

 certain they have no faithful attachments. This species was once not un- 

 common in the Highlands of Scotland. It is now extinct in England, as 

 well as in Ireland. The last Scotch specimen is said to have been killed 

 about fifty years ago ; and Ireland had previously ceased to possess the cock 

 of the wood. 



