GROUS. 



241 



winter, when they are so sluggish and insensible, as to be easily 

 knocked down, or driven into any snare set for them. The food 

 consists of the buds of trees, young shoots of pine and heath, also 

 fruits and berries, which grow on the mountains ; on the Continent 

 they feed on the dwarf birch, and black-berried heath ; and some- 

 times on various kinds of liverwort. The Greenlanders are fond of the 

 flesh in any state, dressed, or half rotten, and raw, using the lard of 

 seals for sauce. The intestines, especially the parts adjoining the 

 crop, and those near the vent, when fresh extracted, are reckoned 

 great dainties. The skins sewn together and worn with the feathers 

 inwards, make a warm and comfortable covering, next to the body; 

 and the women use the black tail feathers, made into bands, to tie on 

 the hair.* 



9— ROCK GROUS. 



Tetrao rupestris, Ind. Orn. ii. 640. Gm. Lin. i. 751. 



Perdrix des roches, Hearn, Voy. 393. 



Rock Grous, Gen. Si/n. Sup. 217. Arct. Zool. ii. No. 184. 



THIS species is said to be in all things like the Ptarmigan, in 

 its winter dress, but differs in having a black line from the bill 

 passing under the eye. According to Mr. Hutchins, who first 

 described it to me, it is a distinct species, and differs in manners, as 

 it inhabits rocky places, or juniper plains, at all seasons ; it frequently 

 makes a croaking noise, with the neck stretched out. Ts very 

 numerous on the two extremes of Hudson's Bay, but never visits the 

 middle settlements, except in very severe weather, at a time when 

 the Ptarmigans are scarce ; and which, too truly, denotes a hard 

 winter ; is never found in the woods, but sits on the rocks, or burrows 

 in the snow: the flesh is inferior to that of the two last. This is 

 called by the natives Uscathachish ; by the English, Rock Partridge. f 



* Faun. Groenl. 116. 



f Captain Sabine sa3's, that this bird is no other than the Ptarmigan, and that one was 

 killed in June, at Hare Island, in Greenland. — Lin. Trans, xii. p. 530. 

 VOL. viii. I i 



