78 TETRAONID.f:. 



the year the bird in question shows a wonderful share of 

 game and jealousy, for after some victories gained on his 

 own ground, he goes in search of more opportunities of 

 satisfying his passion for quarrelling. 



The food of the Black Grous is much more choice and soft 

 than that of the cock of the wood, and consequently the 

 flesh of this bird is by far more tender and better flavoured ; 

 in fact, the Black Grous is the best flavoured game bird for 

 the table. During the summer its food consists in vegetable 

 matter and insects of most kinds, and in winter of the buds of 

 trees, namely, of the beech, birch, hazel, willow, and poplar. 

 In localities where juniper berries abound, they are pre- 

 ferred during the winter above all other food ; and under 

 these trees the Black Grous scratches the snow away in 

 search of the young shoots of heath plants, &c. During the 

 spring of the year, the young leaves of clover, fresh grasses, 

 and the tips and branches of the milk weed (Euphorbia 

 cyparissias) are eagerly consumed. 



The Black Grous does not wash itself, but cleanses itself 

 by means of sand. 



When the hen bird is ready to lay her eggs, she looks out 

 a quiet spot, and scratches a hole in the ground by the side 

 of some low stalky bush or stump of a felled tree, and de- 

 posits her ten or twelve eggs almost on the bare ground, 

 without making more of a nest than collecting the few 

 stalks of dry grasses that lie within her reach when on the 

 nest. The young brood are hatched in three weeks' time, and 

 the day after their birth they run about, and follow the 

 mother at first they feed on ants' 1 eggs, and are kept warm 

 and dry by the mother, until they are able to mount into 

 trees for the purpose of roosting. This young family does 

 not only remain together, but joins other young broods 

 until the next spring. 



The true sportsman very rarely shoots a hen of the 



