BLACK-GROUSE 
Allied species . — In the Caucasus Mountains L. tetrix is represented 
by a very distinct and less robust species, the Caucasian black grouse 
(L. mlokosiewiczi). 
The male has a remarkably developed tail, and is entirely black, and 
the female is easily distinguished from that of L. tetrix by having the 
bars and markings on the breast much finer. The young male in its first 
autumn -plumage is peculiar in that it assumes a hen-like plumage which 
is retained throughout the first year, and thus differs entirely from the 
young male of L. tetrix. 
Distribution in the British Isles . — On the moorland districts of North 
Devon and Somerset it is still to be found in some numbers, but these are 
rapidly decreasing ; and in Cornwall, South Devon, Dorset and Wiltshire 
it has now become very scarce. In other southern counties, where it 
formerly flourished, it is now extinct, or nearly so. Attempts have been 
made to re-introduce the species in various counties, but with small 
success, and even in Bedfordshire and Norfolk, where numbers have 
been turned down during recent years, it does not appear likely to 
re-establish itself permanently. A few are still met with in many parts 
of Wales and in Shropshire, and in parts of Herefordshire, Staffordshire 
and Derbyshire they are still tolerably numerous. In Lancashire, 
Cumberland, Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland they become 
gradually more numerous as one goes northwards. In Scotland the black 
grouse is generally distributed, and plentiful in suitable districts, its 
increase or disappearance in any locality being largely influenced by 
the age of the woods and other local conditions. On some of the Inner 
Hebrides it still flourishes, but in the Outer Hebrides, and in the Orkney 
and Shetland Islands, as well as in Ireland, it does not exist, and attempts 
to introduce the species have not met with success. 
Food . — ^The food of the black grouse is very varied : tender shoots of 
heather and blaeberry, grass seeds, the tops of flowering rushes, berries 
of various kinds, grain, young shoots and buds of larch, fir, alder, and 
especially of birch, are favourite articles of diet. Insects are also freely 
eaten, and large quantities of grit to assist digestion. In autumn the crops 
of the birds may frequently be found filled with rowan berries, and their 
partiality for this extremely acrid fruit is truly astonishing. 
Flight . — ^The flight is very rapid and well sustained, and though the 
bird with its comparatively slow, regular wing-beats does not appear to 
be travelling as fast as a driven grouse, it can easily outstrip the latter. 
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