150 GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 



Hazel-Grouse or Hazel-Hen. 



Tetrastes bonasia, Brit. Mus. Cat., Birds, Vol. XXIX, p. 

 89 ; Yezo Kai-cho, Yamadari, Japanese ; Ridbchik, 

 Russian. 



This little grouse, only the size of a partridge, has the legs 

 only feathered half-way down ; its plumage is mottled with 

 a more or less gre3nsh brown and black, and with much white 

 below, and it has- a distinctive mark in the tail, of which the 

 feathers, except the centre ones, have a broad black band 

 before the white tip, contrasting with the mottled grey of the 

 rest of the feather. The cock is distinguished from the hen 

 by his black throat. Ranging from Scandinavia across Europe 

 and Asia to Japan, this widely-spread grouse especially frequents 

 deciduous woods, unlike most of these forest-grouse which prefer 

 conifers. About a dozen yellowish scantily spotted eggs are 

 laid by it in May. 



Mongolian Hazel-Grouse. 



Tetrastes sevrtzovi, Brit. Mus. Cat., Birds, Vol. XXII, 

 P- 93- 



This species, which ranges from the Kansu Mountains to the 

 Hoang-ho, afiecting conifer forests, can be distinguished from 

 the common hazel-hen by being barred with black aU down the 

 back, not only on the upper part, and by the outer tail-feathers 

 being barred with white on a black ground. 



The feather-toed grouse, or Ptarmigans {Lagopus) to which 

 -group the British Red Grouse belongs, are essentially birds of 

 the wastes of the high north ; all, except the Red Grouse, 

 turn white in winter. 



Willow Grouse. 



Lagopus lagopus, Brit. Mus. Cat., Birds, Vol. XXII. 

 p. 40. Koropatka, Russian. 



In summer this bird is of a pencilled reddish-brown colour, 

 richer in the cock than the hen, just like our Red Grouse in fact, 

 but with the wings and belly white ; in winter it is all white 

 except the black outside tail-feathers. It ranges all round the 

 world in the high north, and in Asia comes as far south as the 

 Amoor. It frequents open bushy country, and packs in 

 winter ; the female lays about a dozen heavily-spotted eggs 

 late in May. 



