J 
V 
t 226 ] 
The Black Cock, however, is fo far from being 
torpid in the winter, that it even approaches the ha- 
bitation of man when didreffed for food ; 'and I 
{hall likewife conclude, till I lee a l'pecimen which 
proves the contrary, that, like the other TetraOs, 
whofe feet are covered low with feathers, this part 
of the plumage becomes thicker in winter. 
M. de Buffon alfo feems to be midaken in fiip- 
pofing, that the thick plumage round the feet is 
peculiar to the Lagopus ; as it is believed, that Lin- 
naeus's firft divifion of this genus have all of them 
the fame additional cloathing for the winter; nor 
is this extraordinary warmth confined merely to this 
genus, as the noble fpecimen of the large White 
Owl, which hath lately been prefented to the 
Royal Society from Hudfon’s Bay, is covered about 
the claws with a plumage of perhaps an equal 
thicknefs. 
The next remarkable circumdance in this bird 
is, that the fhafts of many of the wing-feathers are 
black; which M. de Buffon fuppofes to be only fix; 
■whereas they are eight in the fpecimens from Hudfon’s 
Bay; the two lad are, indeed, of a fainter colour. 
M. de Buffon next fays [V], that Briffon counts 
eighteen feathers in the tail ; and Willoughby, fix- 
teen ; which he reduces himfelf to fourteen. It 
feems to me, however, that Willoughby’s number 
is the more accurate; and, by examining the dif- 
ference between, the fummer and winter fpecimens, 
I find that the black feathers of the tail are co- 
vered by two upper ones, which in fummer are 
brown, and in winter white. 
[c] T. ii. p. 264. 
I cannot 
