Family PHASIANID^. Genus Tetrao. 



Subfamily Tetraoninm. 



BLACK GROUSE. 



TETRAO TETRIX— Z/«««w. 



Geographical Distribution.— ^i^«V«A .• Formerly widely 

 distributed throughout Great Britain, but exterminated in many 

 localities, in some of which, however, it has been reintroduced. 

 Resident locally in all counties south of the Thames, perhaps 

 with the exception of Kent. Locally distributed in Wales, the 

 Midlands, and in the vicinity of Sandringham, in Norfolk j thence 

 in every county north of Nottingham up to the Border. It is 

 more widely and generally distributed throughout Scotland, 

 including some of the Inner Hebrides ; but has not succeeded in 

 establishing itself on the Orkneys or Shetland. Not indigenous 

 in Ireland. Foreign : Palsearctic region. Inhabits the pine and 

 birch forests of Europe and Asia : in Scandinavia as far north as 

 lat. 69!° ; in Russia, and Siberia as far east as the Yenesay, as 

 far north as lat. 68°, but in the valley of the Lena not beyond 

 lat, 63°. East of the latter valley in North Siberia it does not 

 appear to be found, but in the south of that country it ranges 

 eastwards into the Amoor valley to the Ussuri and Mantchooria. 

 Returning westwards, it is an inhabitant of South Siberia and 

 North-eastern Turkestan, onwards throughout Central Europe as 

 far south as the Alps and the Northern Apennines. It is said to 

 occur in the Eastern Pyrenees. 



Allied Forms. — Tetrao mlokosiewiczi, an inhabitant of the 

 Caucasus. Differs from the Black Grouse in having no white in 

 the plumage, in being somewhat smaller, and in having a very 

 diiferent shaped tail. The female of this species is grayer than 

 the female Black Grouse, and the vermiculations on the plumage 

 are not so coarse. 



