TETRAONIN^. LAGOPUS. 
241 
each side elongated and curved outwards ; the general colour 
of the plumage black, the neck and back glossed with deep 
blue ; the lower wing-coverts, lower tail-coverts, and bases of 
the secondary quills, white. Female with the tail slightly 
forked, its lateral feathers straight ; the general colour yel- 
lowish-red, spotted and undulated with brownish-black. 
Male, 23, 33, 10, 1, 2J, 2, Female, 18, 31. 
The Black Grouse is pretty generally distributed in Scot- 
land, in many parts of which it is very abundant. It also oc- 
curs in various parts of England and Ireland. The males se- 
parate from the rest in autumn, and keep apart until toward 
the middle of spring, when they engage in combats with each 
other, and assume particular stations, where they strut and 
invite the females with a loud harsh cry. The nest, com- 
posed of grass and twigs, is placed on the ground, in shelter 
of some low bush, or among rank grass. The eggs, from five 
to eight or ten, are of a regular oval shape, two inches long, 
an inch and seven-twelfths in breadth, yellowish- white, or pale 
reddish-yellow, irregularly spotted and dotted with brownish- 
red or blackish-brown. The males leave the females during 
incubation. The food of this species consists in spring of 
twigs and catkins of alder, birch, and willow ; in summer, of 
tops of heath, Yaccinium Myrtillus, and Empetrum nigrum ; 
in autumn, of heath, crowberries, cranberries, blaeberries, and 
whortleberries ; in winter, of tops and buds of these plants and 
of fir ; but at all seasons its staple food is heath and vaccinia. 
Sometimes it makes excursions into the corn fields, in search 
of seeds of the cereal plants. The flesh of this bird is lighter 
than that of the Bed Grouse, especially the smaller pectoral 
muscles, w^hich are nearly as light-coloured as those of a 
Pheasant. Being in great request, great numbers are annually 
killed. It has been known to breed with the Pheasant and 
Bed Grouse. 
Black Game. Black Cock. Grey or Brown Hen. 
Tetrao Tetrix, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 272. — Tetrao Tetrix, 
Temm. Man. d^Ornith. ii. 460. — Tetrao Tetrix, Black Grouse, 
MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, i. 145. 
GENUS LXXXIII. LAGOPUS. PTABMIGAN, 
Bill short, strong, slightly curved ; upper mandible with 
its dorsal line arcuato-declinate, the ridge convex, the sides 
rounded, the edges sharp and overlapping, the tip thin-edged 
and rounded ; lower mandible narrower, with the angle 
a 
