GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. I49 



foot and-a-half long. The Capercailzie ranges all across North- 

 ern Europe and Asia as far as Lake Baikal ; in the Southern 

 Urals there is a very light-coloured race or sub-species, Tetrao 

 urdlensis. This species is polygamous, like the Blackcock, but 

 shows off to the hens on a tree, not on the ground like that spe- 

 cies ; hybrids between them are not uncommon, and the cocks 

 <^re easily known by their intermediate size, slightly-forked tails 

 and metallic-purple breasts. The number of eggs and date of 

 laying are the same as those of the grey hen, and the eggs are 

 similar but bigger. 



Black-billed Capercailzie. 



Tetrao parvirostris , Brit. Mus. Cat., Birds, Vol. XXII, 

 p. 66. 



Occupying a range to the eastward of the common Capercail- 

 zie, from lake Baikal to Saghalien, this species is readily distin- 

 guishable from that bird by its smaller and black bill, blue- 

 glossed head, and proportionally longer tail, which has no white 

 markings. In the hen, which is very like the common Caper- 

 cailzie hen, the tail is also longer, nearly eight inches as 

 against barely seven-and-a-half. In Kamtschatka there is a 

 race of this bird (T. kamtschaticus), which is distinguished by 

 having continuous bands of white on the upper tail-coverte 

 of the cock and the shoulders of the hen, where in the ordinary 

 bird there are only rows of white spots. 



The Black-billed Capercailzie ' plays ' on the ground like 

 the Blackcock, to which, as will be seen, it approaches in some 

 points of appearance. Its eggs are longer than those of the 

 common Capercailzie. 



Spruce-Grouse. 



Falcipennis jalcipennis, Brit. Mug. Cat., Birds, Vol. 

 XXII, p. 72. 



Native name ; — Kardka, Tungus. 



This grouse, distinguished by the narrow, curved form of the 

 four outer wing-feathers, is of a mottled brown colour above, 

 mottled black-and-white below ; the tail, except the centre- 

 feathers, is black with a white tip. The cock has a black throat 

 and is darker generally than the hen. In size the Spruce-grouse 

 is rather larger than the common partridge ; it is a bird of North - 

 East Siberia, ranging east to Kamtschatka and Saghalien. 



