THE BRITISH RED GROUSE. 859 



yellowish- to reddish-brown. Average size of 100 British eggs, 

 51.59x37.19. Max.: 54x38.2 and 53.5x40.9. Miii. : 49x38.2 

 and 52.2x34.3 mm. Breeding -season. — Usually from mid May 

 onward. Incubation. — By female alone. Period : 24-26 days. 

 Single-brooded. 



Food. — Very varied : in winter and spring chiefly birch buds, but 

 also shoots of larch and Scots pine and alder catkins : during rest 

 of year insects, including coleoptera (especially heather beetle, 

 Lochmoea suturalis) : also galls (Neuroterus), grass, shoots of heather, 

 blaeberry and bog myrtle, potato, turnip, sorrel, trefoil, etc., fruit of 

 wild strawberry, raspberry, cranberry, blaeberry, bearberry, rowan, 

 hawthorn and seeds of grasses, rushes and sedge as well as grain of 

 all kinds. 



Distribution. — Confined to Great Britain. — Resident. Almost 

 extinct Cornwall, scarce south Devon, more plentiful north Devon 

 and Somerset, some Dorset (extinct in Wilts., Hants., Kent, 

 Surrey and Sussex), locally many parts Wales, English border 

 counties and north midlands, and more numerous (but still local) in 

 all English counties north of Derby (including north-west Lines.). 

 Generally distributed mainland Scotland and some I. Hebrides, 

 but not O. Hebrides, Orkneys or Shetlands. Has been introduced 

 many parts (e.g. Sussex, Surrey, Berks., Bucks., Norfolk, Suffolk, 

 Orkneys, N. Wales, Ireland), but generally unsuccessfully. 

 Distribution. — Abroad. — Replaced by other subspecies in conti- 

 nental Europe from Scandinavia and Russia to Switzerland and 

 Apennines, east Russia and northern Asia. 



Genus LAGOPUS Briss. 



Lagopus Brisson, Orn., i, pp. 26, 181 (1760 — Type by tautonymy 

 Brisson's Lagopus which is Lagopus lagopus). 



Smaller than Lyrurus. Tarsus and toes feathered, latter more 

 thickly in winter than in summer. Tail slightly rounded, short, 

 16 rec trices. Nostrils covered. 1st primary much shorter than 

 2nd, 3rd and 4th longest. Sexes about same size, but generally 

 different in colour. Eggs spotted. Four species, mostly in several 

 subspecies, in arctic regions and northern mountain ranges of 

 northern hemisphere. 



LAGOPUS SCOTICUS 



487. Lagopus scoticus scoticus (Lath.) — THE BRITISH RED 

 GROUSE. 



Tetbao scoticus Latham, Gen. Syn., Suppl., 1, p. 290 (1787 — Scotland). 

 Lagopus persicus Gray, Gen. B., in, p. 517, pi. 133 (1845 — No description. 

 The type in Brit. Mus. is a pale variety of the Grouse, labelled " Persia," 

 which is apparently an error for " Perthshire "). 

 Lagopus scoticus (Latham), Yarrell, in, p. 73 ; Saunders, p. 495. 



Description. — Adult male. Winter. — Feathers round base of 

 upper mandible black more or less tipped white ; crown and back 



