2i4f CLASS AVES. 



pilations of transcribers, and the verbal disputes of nomen- 

 clators, served much to clear up the obscurity of such 

 subjects. 



Pliny, however, appears to have been very ^yell acquainted 

 with this bird, as also with the black-grous, both of which he 

 has designated under the name of tetrao. Throughout Ger- 

 many, and even as far as Holland, this grous is known under 

 the appellation of Auerhahn, or Urhahn. 



Its length is nearly three feet, and the extent of its wings, 

 nearly four; it weighs fourteen or fifteen pounds. The female 

 is one-third smaller in all its dimensions. The sole of the 

 foot is covered with hard tubercles. 



The season of reproduction commences with the wood 

 grous in the month of March or April, sooner or later 

 according to the duration of the snow which covers its native 

 mountains ; this period usually lasts until the buds of the 

 beech-tree begin to blossom. The old male is fond of retir- 

 ing to the spot which has been the scene of his early amours ; 

 he generally makes choice of the declivity of some mountain, 

 exposed to the first rays of the sun, in the neighbourhood of 

 a torrent where pine-trees grow ; there the male, with a cry 

 peculiar to the species, calls the females, who assemble on 

 the ground round the tree on which he perches. This fine 

 bird, with his eyes sparkling, the feathers of his head and 

 neck erect, his wings extended, and his tail raised and spread 

 out, parades proudly over the thickest branches, and often on 

 the trunk of some tree which has fallen ; in this attitude he 

 makes the solitudes re-echo with his voice, which bears no 

 indistinct resemblance to the whetting of a scythe ; he most 

 generally commences these cries as early as two o^clock in 

 the morning, and continues them until day-break ; he then 

 descends from the tree, round which the females, to the 

 number of six, and often of eight, are assembled. In the 

 morning he accompanies them in search of foodj and in the 

 evening he resumes his former position. This habit of the 



