DUSKY GROUSE. 191 
remaining* in the nest until they are full fledged, and 
fed in the mean time by the parents. 
The grouse dwell in forests, especially such as are 
deep, and situated in mountainous districts ; the Bona - 
sice , however, and the Tetrao cupido , frequenting plains 
where grow trees of various kinds. The Lagopodes of 
the Arctic regions, or ptarmigans, are also found on the 
very elevated mountains of central Europe, where the 
temperature corresponds to that of more northern 
latitudes. Here they keep among the tufts of dwarf 
willows, which, with pines, form the principal vegeta- 
tion of these climates. The grouse feed almost exclu- 
sively on leaves, buds, berries, and especially the young 
shoots of trees, pines, spruce, or birch, resorting to 
seeds only when compelled by scarcity of other food, 
or when their usual means of subsistence are buried 
beneath the snow. They sometimes, especially when 
young, pick up a few insects and worms, and are fond 
of ants’ eggs. Like other gallinaceous birds, they are 
constantly employed in scratching the earth, are fond 
of covering themselves with dust, and swallow small 
pebbles and gravel to assist digestion. No birds are 
more decidedly and tyrannically polygamous. As soon 
as the females are fecundated, the male deserts them, 
caring no farther about them nor their progeny, to 
lead a solitary life. Like perfidious seducers, they are 
full of attentions however, and display the greatest 
anxiety to secure the possession of those they are 
afterwards so ready to abandon. The nuptial season 
commences when the leaves first appear in spring. The 
males then appear quite intoxicated with passion : they 
are seen, either on the ground, or on the fallen trunks 
of trees, with a proud deportment, an inflamed and 
fiery eye, the feathers of the head erected, the wings 
dropped, the tail widely spread, parading and strutting 
about in all sorts of extravagant attitudes, and expressing 
their feelings by sounds so loud as to be heard at a great 
distance. This season of ardour and abandonment is 
protracted till June. The deserted female lays, unno- 
ticed by the male, far apart on the ground, among low 
