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BLACK GROUSE. 



BLACK COCK. GRAY HEN. 



Tetrao tetrix, .... Linnets. 



Tetras Birlclian, .... Temjeenck. 



Tetrao — A Bustard. Tetrix, Qutere, Teter — Black or dark. 



The Black Grouse being a natural inhabitant of Great Britain, and not an introduced 

 bird, is, as might be expected, very generally distributed wherever situations agreeable 

 to its habits are found. In the south of England it occurs in the New Forest, in 

 Hampshire; in Devonshire, near Axmouth, and on the wild country of Dartmoor, Sedge- 

 moor, and Exnioor, as well as on Lord Caernarvon's estates near Dulvarton; in Sussex, on 

 Ashdown Forest; in Surrey in several localities — one female is mentioned by Mr. Alfred 

 Newton as having been picked up dead, and a male seen at Elvedon, in Suffolk; one 

 female was shot in Oxfordshire in 1836, as recorded by the Revs. A. and H. Matthews. 

 In Somerset, they also occur on the higher ground near Taunton, and elsewhere; in 

 Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumberland, and North- 

 umberland; becoming more plentiful as we proceed north, till in Scotland it becomes 

 abundant. It is plentiful in Sutherland wherever it has any protection; and according 

 to Macgillivray, is found in the Isles of Mull and Sky, but not in Orkney or Shetland. 

 A few are met with in Wales. In Ireland it does not exist; and from what Mr. W. 

 Thompson states, it is very doubtful whether any have ever existed there but those brought 

 over and turned out with the hope that they would breed. This hope, however, does 

 not appear to have been ever realized; some natural or local cause seems to have inter- 

 fered in each instance, although every care and protection was offered the birds that 

 anxiety for their increase could have dictated. 



The following accounts of this attempted introduction into Ireland are interesting, and 

 we give them in the hope of directing particular attention to the providing the young, 

 in any future experiments, with the food which they seem to require, and which in these 

 instances was wanting. We take them both from Mr. Thompson's "Natural History of 

 Ireland." The first is a letter to Mr. Thompson from C. Redmond, gamekeeper to Yisconnt 



