268 



WOOD GROUS. 



Entirely dull white^ clouded with brownish. 

 Tetrao Urogallus, van $. Niks. Orn, Stcec. 1. 299. 



This grand species was formerly taken in abund- 

 ance in Scotland, but at this period it is nearly if 

 not entirely extirpated ; indeed there is no au- 

 thentic record of a specimen having been shot in 

 that country these forty years It is as large as a 

 Turkey, measuring two feet nine inches in length ; 

 its weight from seven to thirteen pounds: beak 

 strong and yellowish : irides hazel : nostrils covered 

 with dusky feathers : beneath the eye a small spot 

 of white feathers : the head and neck of a dusky 

 brown, sprinkled with small greyish white spots : 

 the feathers of the hind head elongated, and, with 

 those of the chin and throat, dusky black : the 

 back and rump dusky ash, marked with innu- 

 merable small zigzag white lines : the belly is black, 

 with white spots towards its middle, and undulated 

 greyish white stripes on its sides : the breast is of 

 a fine dark glossy green : the wing-coverts are 

 chesnut-brown, finely speckled with dusky, and 

 striated with blackish lines ; at their tips pure 

 white : the primary quills dusky brown ; the se- 

 condaries the same, finely edged with whitish on 

 their outer webs : the bend of the wing and under 

 tail-coverts pure white : the tail consists of eighteen 

 feathers, and is rounded in shape, and black, with 

 a small white spot on the outer feather on each 



* The late G. Montagu, however, was present when one was 

 killed near the upper end of Loch Lomond^ about thirty-five 

 years since. 



