38 BLACK GROUSE. 



in its change any of the brighter colours, such as blue, green, yellow, or red; and yet 

 why should they not occasionally be developed? 



Like the Pheasant and the Capercaillie, the Black Grouse will now and then breed with 

 other closely-allied birds; numerous hybrids between this bird and the Pheasant, varying 

 a good deal, probably as the union was between a Black Cock and Hen Pheasant, ov 

 between a Cock Pheasant and a Gray Hen, are upon record. Of such hybrids Mr. 

 Yarrell has enumerated thirteen examples; but others might probably without much 

 difficulty be added. Birds have also been obtained in Norway which are believed to be 

 hybrids between the Black Grouse and a species of Ptarmigan, but they are stated to 

 be extremely rare; so also are those between it and the Capercaillie. It has also been 

 known in Sweden to breed with the Barn-door Fowl; and, it is also suspected, with 

 the Eed Grouse. 



The male Black Cock has the bill dusky black; irides, dark blue; over each eye is 

 a semilunar patch of naked bright scarlet skin ; under each eye there is a spot of dirty 

 white colour. Head, neck, breast, back, and rump, all of a rich black, rellecting steel 

 blue and purple; quills, brown; secondaries and wing coverts, tipped with white, and 

 forming a white bar across the wing; the bastard wing has also a spot of white on it. 

 Belly, wing coverts, and tail, pitch black; the tail, which consists of sixteen feathers, 

 is deeply forked, the outside feathers curving outwardly; the end of the outside one 

 seems as if cut off; under tail coverts, pure white. Legs and thighs, covered with dark 

 brown, mottled with white feathei's ; legs, feathered to the toes, which have lateral fringes. 



In the female or Gray Hen, as in the male, the bill is dusky black, and there is the 

 same dusky white patch beneath the eye. The head and neck are ochre yellow, rayed with 

 black; the upper parts are brownish orange, as a ground colour, barred and speckled 

 with black; throat, breast, and belly, of a yellowish white or very pale orange, barred 

 with black; the feathers on the wings and shoulders have the centre black, but the 

 shaft is of a pale colour, which gets broader and paler towards the tip; greater wing 

 coverts, tipped with white. The tail, consisting of eighteen feathers, is very slightly 

 forked, of a reddish brown, spotted with black, the tip grayish white; under tail coverts, 

 white, with a few bars of orange and black. 



The young birds resemble the female in plumage until the autumnal moult. 



The weight of an adult Black Cock is about four pounds; that of the female about 

 two pounds. 



The cock bird measures in length from one foot ten inches to two feet, while the 

 female seldom exceeds eighteen inches. 



