C 2 *5 ] 
found, that no feathers grow precifely under the 
claws j though, by wrapping very thickly round 
them, they have very ftrongly that appearance : and, 
in a fummer Specimen, not only the feet, but even 
the legs, are rather bare of plumage. If Ariftotle, 
therefore, had procured- the bird in its fummer drefs, 
he could not have obferved this very ftriking cir- 
cumftance, which M. de Buffon relies upon as fo 
ftrongly chara&eriftic. 
The fame difference between the plumage in' 
fummer and winter is experienced in each of the 
three fpecies of Tetrao, which have (according to 
one of Linnaeus’s fubdivifions) feathered feet ; and 
it is ufually faid with us, that they have in winter 
their fnow> boots. * M. de Buffon, therefore, un- 
juftly charges- the author of the Britifh Zoology 
for fuppofing, that this is a wife provilion of Nature 
againft the inclemency of the feafon, when he 
fays, [a\ that the vrogallus Minor, or our Black Cock, 
hath not the fame prote&ion for its feet, thought 
it buries itfelf under the fnow, and, becoming tor- 
pid, equally wants fuch additional warmth. 
With regard to the torpidity of this bird, M« dc 
Buffon relies upon Linnaeus’s aiferting, that fccpe [e- 
pelitur in nive [b ] ; which by no means, fignifies-, 
that the bird is torpid, but only that it buries itfelf. 
fometimes, under the fnow j as fheep do with us 
in the more rigorous feafons, when it lies, very deep ■ 
in the mountains. 
[«] T..ii. p„ 216. 
[_b] Linn. S. Nat. p. 159. This circumftance is alfo obferved i 
fey Pontoppidan, Pt. ii, p. 75. Engl, TranfL. 
The: 
1 
