44 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family TETEAONID^. Genus Tetrao. 



BLACK GROUSE. 



TBTEAO TBTEIX.— Lmw^Ms. 



Plate VIII. 



Tetrao tetrlx, Linn, Syst. Nat. i. p. 274 (1766) ; Macgill. Brit. B. i. p. 145 (1837) ; 

 Dresser, B. Eur vii. p. 205, pi. 487 (1873) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 60 

 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 435 (1884) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. vii. 

 (1888) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. p. 360 (1893) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs 

 Brit. B. p. 273, pi. 59 (1896). 



Lyrurus tetrix (Linn), Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 53 (1393) ; Sharps, Handb. 

 B. Gt. Brit. iv. p. 273 (1897). 



Geographical distribution — British : The Black Grouse was formerly 

 widely distributed throughout Great Britain, but it has been exterminated in 

 many localities, in some of which, however, it has been introduced. It is resident 

 locally in all counties south of the Thames, perhaps with the exception of Kent. 

 It is locally distributed in Wales, the Midlands, and in the vicinity of Sandring- 

 ham, in Norfolk ; 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 Shetlands. It is not indigenous to Ireland. Foreign : Palaearctic 

 region. It inhabits the pine and birch forests of Europe and Asia ; in Scandi- 

 navia as far north as lat. 695-° ; in Eussia and Siberia as far east as the Yenisei, 

 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 has been found as far as the Kolima river, 

 and in the south of that country it ranges eastwards into the Amoor Valley to the 

 Ussuri and Mantchooria. Eeturning westwards we find it to be 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 mlohosiewiczi, an inhabitant of the Caucasus. 

 Differs from the Black Grouse in having no white in the plumage, in being some- 

 what smaller, and in having a very differently-shaped tail. The female of this species 

 is greyer than the female Black Grouse, and the vermiculations on the plumage 

 are less coarse. 



