156 
THE COMMON DLACK GROUSE, 
there is abundance of water, and plenty of food, in 
tender seeds of the rushes, and alpine grasses. The 
young are seldom full grown before the first of Sep- 
tember ; and even at this season, if they have been 
undisturbed previously, they will almost suffer them- 
selves to be lifted from among the rank herbage be- 
fore the pointers. At this time the plumage of the 
young is somewhat like that of the female, a lighter 
tint of yellowish-brown, mottled and crossed with 
bars of black, the males commencing to get the black 
feathers of the adult plumage, or to spot, as sports- 
men term it ; this is almost always completed by the 
beginning of October, but does not gain its richness 
of gloss and lustre before the following spring. 
During summer the general food is the seeds of 
the various grasses, ami the berries of the different 
alpine plants, such as the cran and crow berries, 
blaeberries, &c.*; and in winter the tender shouts of 
the fir, catkins of birch and hazel, afford them sup- 
port in the wilder districts, and often give their pe- 
culiar flavour to the flesh ; but in all the lower dis- 
tricts, where, indeed, tins bird is most abundant, the 
gleaning of the stubble yields a plentiful meal. Fields 
of turnips or rape are also favourite feeding places, 
and the leaves yield them a more convenient sup- 
ply of food during hard frost, than they could else- 
where provide. In some places flocks of hundreds 
* Yncdttiam oxyeoccus, Empetrum nigrum, Vaccmium 
myrtillus, Vitia Idiea, and Arbutus Uvu-ursi, arc all sought 
after. 
