HAZEL GROUSE. 205 



bea'ntifully adapted to the "circumstances of their 

 existence." 



The Hazel Grouse, which, in the absence from my 

 list of the genus Phasianus , claims my first notice, 

 is an inhabitant of many of the heathery or woody 

 mountains and plains of Europe. It occurs in the 

 north of Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Germany, 

 France, Italy, the Alps, Savoy, Verona, the Tyrol 

 and Siberia as far as the River Lena. In France it 

 is especially found among the Pyrenees, the mountains 

 of the Vosges, the Dauphine, and the Ardennes. It 

 does not occur in Greece or Holland, and is not 

 noticed in Dr. Machado's list of the birds of Andalusia. 

 Dr. Schrenck includes it in the birds of Amoor Land. 



Mr. Wheelwright, of Gadsjo, in Sweden, living in 

 the land of Grouse, has obligingly favoured me with 

 some notes about this and the next species, for which 

 I have to tender him my thanks; such information, 

 coming from the fountain head, always being most 

 acceptable. 



"The Hjerpe has never been met with in the south 

 of Sweden, but is found in the woods of Dahl and 

 in the south-west coast of Bohns Land. It is tolerably 

 common in Oster Gothland. It is rare around Stock- 

 holm, but common in the more northerly parts; 

 (Nilsson remarks that this appears the more strange 

 since the same bird comes in numbers into Germany, 

 and even France. He thinks that if it were introduced 

 it would thrive in the rocky wooded tracts of North 

 Scania.) 



"The Hazel Grouse does not go so high up the 

 fell sides as the Capercaillie or Black Grouse, and it 

 disappears from the Norwegian fells long before we 

 have reached the limits of the frost. According to 



