Nest, &c. 
Food. 
306 GALLINA. TETRAO. Buiack Grows. 
sity ceases, and the male birds again associate, and live har- 
moniously together. 
The female deposits her eggs in May; they are from six 
to ten in number, of a yellowish-grey colour, blotched with 
reddish-brown. The nest is of most artless construction, be- 
ing composed of a few dried stems of grass placed on the 
ground, under the shelter of a tall tuft or low bush; and ge- 
nerally in marshy spots, where long and coarse grasses 
abound. The young of both sexes at first resemble each 
other, and their plumage is that of the hen, with whom they 
continue till the autumnal moult takes place; at this time the 
males acquire the garb of the adult bird, and quitting their 
female parent, join the societies of their own sex.—The food 
of the black grous, during the summer, chiefly consists of the 
seeds of some species of Juncus, the tender shoots of heath, 
and insects. In autumn, the crowberry, or Crawcrook (Em- 
petrum nigrum), the cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos), the 
whortle-berry (Vaccinium vitis idza), and the trailmg arbu- 
tus (Arbutus uva ursi) afford it a plentiful subsistence. In 
winter, and during severe and snowy weather, it eats the 
tops and buds of the birch and alder, as well as the embryo 
shoots of the fir tribe, which it is well enabled to obtain, as it 
is capable of perching upon trees without any difficulty. At 
this season of the year, in situations where arable land is in- 
terspersed with the wild tracts it inhabits, descending into the 
stubble grounds, it feeds upon grain. 
In the adult state, the black grous displays great shyness 
of character, and, after the autumnal moult, is not easily ap- 
proached within gunshot. Frequent attempts have been 
made to domesticate this bird, but without success; and, 
through all the trials that have taken place, it has never been 
known to breed in confinement. It seems to be a species 
more widely dispersed throughout the central parts of Eu- 
rope than any of the rest, and.is found tolerably abundant in 
Germany, France, and Holland, In the more northern coun- 
tries, Denmark and Sweden, Norway, and Russia, it is very 
common, 
