THE BRITISH BLACK GROUSE. 855 



Distribution. — Scotland. — Resident. Became extinct Scotland 

 and Ireland about 1760, and England perhaps a century previously. 

 Reintroduced from Sweden into Perthshire 1837, and subsequently 

 in many places. Now spread over Tay area and north into Aber- 

 deen, Elgin, Inverness and Ross-shire, west into Argyll, south into 

 Stirling, Dumbarton and Lanark, and sporadically Mid and East 

 Lothians, Ayr, Renfrew, Wigtown, Dumfries and other southern 

 counties. 



Distribution. — A broad.— Forests of Europe generally from N. 

 Russia and Scandinavia to Alps, Carpathians and Balkans. Repre- 

 sented by more or less closely allied subspecies in Pyrenees and 

 Oantabrian Mts., east Russia, Ural Mts., and Siberia to Trans- 

 baikalia. 



Genus LYRURUS Swains. 



Lyrurus Swainson, Richardson and Swainson's Fauna Bor.-Amer., 

 ir, p. 497 (Febr., 1832 — Type named as L. tetrix). 



Not so large as Tetrao, tarsus feathered, toes bare, laterally 

 pectinated, nostrils covered, 1st primary much shorter than 2nd, 

 between 7th and 8th in L. tetrix, 3rd to 5th longest. Tail in male 

 deeply forked, in female slightly, in male lateral rectrices at tips 

 curved outwards. Sexes very different. Eggs spotted. Two 

 species, both Palsearctic only. 



LYRURUS TETRIX 



486. Lyrurus tetrix britannicus With, and Lonnb.— THE BRITISH 

 BLACK GROUSE. 



Lyrurus tetrix britannicus Witherby and Lonnberg, Brit. B. (Mag.), 



vi, p. 270 (1913— Great Britain). 



Tetrao tetrix Linnseus, Yarrell, in, p. 60 ; Saunders, p. 493. 



Description (Plate 13). — Adult male. Winter. — Upper- and under- 

 pays black ; crown, neck, upper-mantle, back, throat and upper- 

 breast glossed dark blue ; fore-head, ear-coverts and chin with less 

 and more greenish gloss ; feathers on vent and sides of tarsus of 

 loose structure and tipped white ; those on tibia with long white 

 tips ; on front of tarsus spotted grey -white ; under tail-coverts 

 white, sometimes with black spots (varying in size and number) in 

 centres of tips and sometimes near base of feathers ; axillaries and 

 under wing-coverts white, sometimes with small black tips, coverts 

 along edge of wing black or mostly black, but those at insertion 

 of wing white and a small white patch at this point showing 

 from above ; tail black ; primaries dark brown, greyer on 

 outer webs, bases of inner feathers white ; secondaries with distal 

 third black-brown (tips narrowly fringed white) and basal two- 

 thirds white, forming white bar across wing, but on innermost 

 feathers concealed by coverts ; primary-coverts, bastard-wing and 

 greater coverts black with extreme bases white ; rest of wing-coverts 



