600 AVES—BLACK GROUSE. 
THE BLACK GROUSE; OR, BLACK, @oiex,1 
Is much more common. Jt is found in many parts of Europe, and im most 
of the moors in the north of England, Wales, and Scotland. Its name 
almost furnishes its description, since the whole body is black, which, how- 
ever, is iridesgent, and in some positions of the light, it shows a beautiful 
purple; but it has another remarkable characteristic, which is, that its tail 
is forked. Itis rather larger than a common fowl, and is in length from 
twenty-four to twenty-eight inches. At the breeding season their contests 
are so furious, that in Courland, Livonia, &c., it is a common method of 
taking them, to assemble them together, by imitating the crowing of a black 
ock, and by having a figure prepared to imitate that animal in all its mo- 
fons. The grouse, being collected in vast numbers from all parts, enter 

into a bloody contest; when the combatants are so intent upon each othier’s 
destruction, that they fall an easy prey to their pursuers, and may even be 
knocked down with a stick. There isa variety of this species with a plain 
tail. 




1 Tetrao tetriz, Lin. 
