70 KANGE OF THE BLACKCOCK. 
They hunted the valley, they hunted the hill, 
The best of the lads wi' the best of their skill ; 
But stiU as the fairest she sat in their sight, 
"When, * Whirr !' she was over a mile at a flight. 
I rede you beware at the hunting, &c. 
In nearly all the hilly districts of Scotland the Blackcock 
may be found ; his range extends as far up as Sutherland- 
shire, and stretches into the islands of Mull and Skye. In 
Ireland — where there are such large tracts of heath and bog 
land, and wooded mountains, just suited, as one would 
suppose, to its habits — it is altogether absent, or occurs 
very rarely. It is not, like the Eed Grouse, confined to 
Britain, but has an extensive range over Europe, the 
northern parts being those where it is principally met with. 
Linna3us saw it high up in the forests of Lapland ; 
and so plentiful is it in Sweden and Norway, that the Lon- 
don dealers, after the first four months of the season, derive 
their principal supply from those countries, where Grouse- 
shooting commences on the 1st of August, where the hens 
are strictly preserved, and where no spring shooting is al- 
lowed at all. 
A full-grown Blackcock will measure about 22 inches in 
length, and sometimes weigh as much as four pounds. It 
is a very handsome bird, with its black and dark-brown 
plumes, variegated here and there with white, and shining 
with a steely-blue reflection. It has the crimson patch 
over the eye common to all the tetraonidce^ but possesses a 
peculiar mark of distinction in the tail, the four lateral 
feathers of which on each side are elongated and curved 
outwards, something like the flukes of an anchor, or, as 
some have thought, the form of a lyre — hence the name 
Lyrarus tetinx given to the bird by Swainson. The Grey 
Hen, as the female is generally called, is smaller in size, and 
without this peculiarity. Her plumage, although generally 
brown, wants the rich warm sienna tint of that of the Eed ♦ 
Grouse ; it is prettily mottled, and shaded with black and 
grey. 
This species has been fi-equently known to interbreed 
with the pheasant, and on one or two occasions with the 
common barn-door fowl; sometimes with the capercalzie 
