494 BLACK GROUSE. 
our language as ‘Grows.’ The bird has been introduced near 
Sandringham in Norfolk; while it is scattered locally over the 
wilder portions of the Midland counties, the Marches, and many 
parts of Wales, and north of Sherwood Forest it is found in every 
English county. In Scotland it is distributed, in varying numbers, 
over the mainland and in many of the Inner Hebrides, but attempts 
at introduction in the Outer islands, as well as in the Orkneys, 
have not been successful. In Ireland it was never indigenous. 
The Black Grouse inhabits Scandinavia, Russia, the heath-clad 
wastes of the east of Holland, the hilly districts of Germany 
and Central Europe, Switzerland (except the Jura), and the northern 
Apennines. It is not found in the Pyrenees ; while in the Caucasus 
it is represented by a smaller and more slender species, the male of 
which has a deep glossy-black plumage and a remarkably developed 
tail. Beyond the Ural Mountains the Black Grouse stretches across 
the wooded regions of Siberia up to 67° N., and as far south as 
Manchuria. 
Blackcocks are polygamous, and. in spring they assemble before 
dawn to fight for the hens, performing the most extraordinary antics 
in order to prove attractive. When this /e& is over they retire 
with the females they have secured, and the latter make a slight 
nest on the ground in which they deposit 6-10 eggs of a yellowish- 
white spotted with orange-brown : average measurements 2 by 1°4 
in. The males have also a short “spel” in autumn, when they 
separate from the females and flock together. The young feed 
largely on ants’ eggs and other insect food, while whortleberries 
&c., barley, the juicy seeds of rushes, and the tops and buds of many 
other plants are favourite articles of diet with the adults; abund- 
ance of moisture being at all times essential. Interbreeding with 
the Capercaillie has already been noticed ; it is not infrequent with 
the Pheasant ; and it occasionally takes place with our Red Grouse, 
the Scandinavian Willow-Grouse and the Hazel-Grouse. 
The general colour of the Blackcock is bluish-black ; the wing- 
bar and the under tail-coverts being white. Length 23 in. ; wing 
10°3. The Greyhen is chiefly pale chestnut-brown, barred and 
freckled with black; wing 9g in. The latter breeds in her first 
spring, but the young males are liable to be driven away by the 
older and stronger cocks. The young male is at first like the 
female, but the dark plumage begins to show early in October, and 
is nearly full by December, although the full development of the 
out-curved tail-feathers is not attained till the third year. 
