44 



BLACK COCK. 



Sir William Jardine thinks the Blackcap retires in winter to 

 Madeira, because he has received specimens of it from that island ; but 

 Dr. Heineken, who resided there, tells us that it is resident all the 

 year. 1 Mr. Lewin once shot a male in Kent, in January. Mr. Syme 

 says it is not rare in the vicinity of Edinburgh. * 



The nest is built in some low bush or shrub, (*I have generally 

 found it four or five feet from the ground,*) composed of dried stalks, 

 generally of goose grass, put together in a very neat manner with a 

 little wool, and sometimes a little green moss on the outside ; the in- 

 side is lined with fibrous roots, upon which are frequently placed a few 

 long hairs. The eggs are four or five in number, of a pale reddish 

 brown, mottled, (*I should say stained,*) with a deeper colour, and 

 sometimes sprinkled with a few ash-coloured spots : their weight about 

 thirty-four grains. On the first arrival of the bird it feeds greedily 

 on ivy berries, but forsakes that food as soon as the vernal sun has 

 roused the insect tribes. 



BLACK COCK (Tetrao tetrix, Linnjeus.) 



*Tetrao Tetrix, Linn. Syst. l.p. 272. 2.— Faun. Suec. No. 202.— Gmel. Syst. 1. 

 p. 748. — Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 635. 3. — Urogallus minor, Rati, Syn. p. 35. 

 A. 2.— Will. p. 124. t. 31.— Briss. 1. p. 186. 2.— Petit Tetras, ou Coq de 

 Bruyere a, queue fourchue, Buff. Ois. 2. p. 210. t. 6. — Ib. pi. Enl. 172. and 

 175.— Tetras Berkhan, Temm. Pig. et Gall. 3. p. 140.— Ib. Man. d'Orn. 

 1. p. 461. — Gabel Schwanziges Waldhuhn, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 3. p. 1319. 

 — Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 295. — Frisch, Vog. t. 109. male. — Supp. 

 No. 109. female.— Black Grous, Black Game. Br. Zool. 1. No. 93. t. 42.— 

 Arct. Zool. 2. No. 314. C— Will. (Aug].)— Lath.Syn. 4. p. 733. 3.— Ib. Supp. 

 p. 213.— Albin, 1. t. 22.— Lewin s Br. Birds. 4. t. 133.— Mont. Orn. Diet.— 

 Ib. Supp.— Pult. Cat. Dorset p. 7— Wale. Syn. 2. t. 181.— Don. Br. Birds, 4. 

 t. 97.— Bewick's Br. Birds.— Selby, pi. 58. and 58. p. 304. 



Provincial. — Heath-Cock, Heath-Poult.* 

 This species sometimes weighs as much as four pounds ; length 

 about twenty-three inches, bill dusky, irides hazel ; the head, neck, and 

 whole body, are of glassy blue-black, particularly about the neck, breast, 

 and rump ; over the eye the bare scarlet skin is granulated ; the coverts of 

 the wings dusky brown, the four first quill feathers black, the next 

 white at the bottom, the lower half and tips of the secondaries white, 

 under wing coverts white ; the thighs are dark brown, sometimes marked 

 with a few white spots ; the tail consists of sixteen black feathers ; the 

 exterior ones bend outwards, and are much longer than those in the middle, 

 which makes the tail very forked; the under tail coverts pure white; legs 

 covered with hair-like feathers of a dark brown, speckled with grey ; toes 

 pectinated. 



1 Zool. Journal. See also Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. iv. 



