gkous. 225 



and black, the tips of the feathers white ; back and scapulars black, 

 the edges of the feathers mottled black and pale reddish brown ; 

 scapulars tipped with white; the inner webs of the quills dusky, 

 exterior mottled with dusky and pale brown ; tail deep rust-colour, 

 barred with black, and tipped with white.* 



This species inhabits, for the most part, the colder countries; and 

 when in the warmer, chuses the elevated regions, where the tempe- 

 rature is bleak and chilling: hence is found in various parts of the 

 Old Continent, from the North of Russia, to Italy, f and on several 

 parts of the Alps: formerly inhabited Ireland and Scotland, but in 

 the former is believed to be extinct, and in the latter extremely scarce ; 

 one being shot at Inverness, mentioned as a rare instance. $ It was 

 certainly once frequent in the Highlands, but now confined to the 

 pine forests, North of Loch Ness, and is called the Horse of the 

 AYoods-H The female lays from eight to sixteen white eggs, spotted 

 with yellow, and bigger than those of a Hen ; they are deposited 

 upon moss, on the ground, in some dry spot,§ the female alone sitting 

 the whole time of incubation, and hiding the place, by covering the 

 eggs with leaves, when at any time obliged to leave them : the young 

 run after the mother as soon as hatched, and often with part of the 

 egg shell attached to them, in the manner of Partridges. 



The sexes live separate, except from the beginning of February; 

 when the male, morning and evening, mounts on the stump of an 



* Mr. Pennant says, that this sex has sixteen tail feathers ; Brisson allows the male only 

 sixteen ; Schwenckfield will have but twelve, yet he gives the female eighteen. Hence it 

 should seem, that eighteen is the number intended by nature for both sexes; nor do I 

 recollect any bird, wherein the male and female differ in the numbers. Linnaeus, in the 

 Fauna Suecica, mentions eighteen feathers, but he only describes the male. 



f Met with at the Island of Milo, in the Archipelago. — Hasselq. Voy. (F.ng. Ed.) p. 16. 



% Br. Zool. || Tour in Scotland, 1771. V»l. ii. p. 23.— Br. Zoo/. 



§ One of these birds found in Scotland, in the Chicholm's great forest, in Strathglass, 

 the nest of which was placed on a Scotch pine. The late Mr. Dickson, of Covent Garden, 

 met with a flock of six or eight near the district of Lochaber, more than twenty years since ; 

 and we have heard of one being now and then seen, but always considered as an uncommon 

 occurrence. 



VOL. VIII. G G 



