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.^ 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, Linn^us.) 
* Tetrao Tetrixf Lin??. Syst. l.p. 272.2. — Faun. Suec. No. 202. — GmeL Syst. 1. 
p. 748. — Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 635. 3. — Urogallus minor, Raii, Syn. p. 35. 
A. 2. — Witl. p. 124. t. 31.- — Bi'iss. 1. p. 186. 2. — Petit Tetras, ou Coq de 
Bruyere a queue fourchue, Buff. Ois. 2. p. 210. t. 6 — lb. 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, Vbg. t. 109. male. — Supp, 
No. i09. female. — Black Grous, Black Game. Br. Zool. 1. No. 93. t. 42. — 
Arct. Zool. 2. No. 314. C. — Will. (Ang\.) — Lath. Syn. 4. p. 733. 3. — Ib. Supp. 
p. 213. — Albin, 1. t. 22. — LewinlsB>\. Birds. 4. t. 133. — Mont. Orn. Diet. — 
lb. 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. 
* Zool. Journal. See also Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. iv. 
