grous. 24.9 



It is certainly much less common now than formerly, owing 1 to the 

 increased demand for it as an article of food; which is the case also 

 with the Black Grous.* It is not met with so often in London as 

 the last named, as the flesh much sooner corrupts. It does not bear 

 confinement well, yet has been known to breed in the Menagerie of 

 that noble and intelligent Naturalist, the Duchess Dowager of Port- 

 land, who informed me, that it was effected in part, by causing fresh 

 pots of ling, or heath to be placed in the Menagerie almost every day. f 

 Buffon speaks of a white bird of this kind, which he calls 

 Attagas blanc ; J found about the mountains of Switzerland and 

 Vicenza ; probably more allied to the Ptarmigan than to this Species. 

 The same may be said in respect to one quoted by him from 

 Rzaczynski, having part of the wings and belly white, otherwise 

 varied ; and it is added, that they are frequently seen of a pure 

 white about Novogorod, in Muscovy. 



The only Variety of the Red Grous which I have met with, was 

 in the Leverian Museum ; it was pale about the head, and had many 

 white feathers mixed among the striae, but by no means patched with 

 white. I shall here mention a singularity, which presented itself in 

 one of these birds, related to me by J. Eeles, Esq. of Wilmington, in 

 Kent, many years since. On the inside of one of the thighs was the 

 rudiment of a toe, with a sharp claw, curved as in the Sparrow 

 Hawk, and standing out from the muscles, so that the whole was 

 visible. A similar circumstance has also occurred in the thigh of a 

 Turkey, bred in the poultry yard of the late Mr. Pennant, and 

 figured in the Phil. Transactions,^ which claw was no less hooked 

 than in the first-named instance. 



* It is singular, that neither this bird, nor the Black Cock, are in the list of the famed 

 feast of Archbishop Nevjll ; especially as both are found in Yorkshire ; but probably thev 

 were not reckoned among the dainties of those days. In these times they are greatly es- 

 teemed, and sent as presents towards the south, both fresh and potted. 



f M. Temminck supposes this to be no other than the Willow Grous in the summer dress, 

 but as far as we can learn, the Red Species does not change to white at any season, nor is 

 the Willow Species any where in Great Britain. * Hist, des Ois. ii. 262. 



§ Vol. lxxi. p. 81. pi. 3. — Also, History of Whiteford and Holywell, pi. in p. 146. 



VOL. VIII. K K 



