264 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
Genus— Tetrao. 
200. Tetrao tetrix. Black Grouse. 
Heath-Poult. Black Cock. Gray Hen (Female). 
Resident in the New Forest district only. 
This is an indigenous species, and has never quite died 
out in the New Forest ; but the recent colony in Wolmer 
Forest was the result of importation, as detailed below, 
and such also is the origin of stray birds occasionally found 
in other parts of the county. 
Gilbert White wrote of it in Wolmer Forest ^ : "But 
there was a nobler species of game in this forest, now 
extinct, which I have heard old people say abounded much 
before shooting flying became so common, and that was 
the heath-cock or black-grouse. When I was a little boy 
I recollect one coming now and then to my father's table. 
The last pack remembered was killed about thirty-five 
years ago, and within these ten years one solitary gray hen 
was sprung by some beagles in beating for a hare. The 
sportsman cried out, 'A hen pheasant'; but a gentleman 
present, who had often seen black game in the North of 
England, assured me that it was a gray hen." 
It was re-introduced into Wolmer Forest by Sir Charles 
Taylor, then ranger of the forest, from Cumberland. 
Major Cowie, who has recently had the charge of 
Wolmer Forest, informed Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, about the 
year 1899, that he believed there were none now left in the 
district, since he never saw one, alive or dead. 
' Letter vi. to Pennant. 
