192 
TETRAO OBSCURUS. 
and thick bushes, from eight to sixteen eggs, breeding 
but once in a season. They sit and rear their young 
precisely in the manner of the common fowl, the chicks 
being carefully protected by the mother only, with 
whom they remain all the autumn and winter, not 
separating until the return of the breeding season. It 
is only at this period that the males seek the society of 
the females. 
The grouse are remarkably wild, shy, and un tameable 
birds, dwelling in forests or in barren, uncultivated 
grounds, avoiding cultivated and thickly inhabited 
countries, and keeping together in families. The 
Lagopodes only live in very numerous flocks, com- 
posed of several broods, parting company when the 
return of spring invites them to separate in pairs of 
different sexes, which is always done by the birds of 
this division. Except in the breeding season, the 
grouse keep always on the ground, alighting on trees 
only when disturbed, or when going to roost at night ; 
by day retiring to the deepest part of the forest. The 
flesh of all grouse is delicious food, dark coloured in 
some, and white in others, the dark being more com- 
pact, juicy, and richly flavoured, as in Tetrao eupido ; 
while the white, though somewhat dry, is distinguished 
for delicacy and lightness. Such are the Lonasiee, 
T. umbellus of America, and T. bonasice of Europe. 
The grouse are distinguished by a short stout bill, 
feathered at base, and they are, of all gallinaceous birds, 
those in which the upper mandible is the most vaulted; 
the feathers of the bill are very thick and close, and 
cover the nostrils entirely ; the tongue is short, 
fleshy, acuminate, and acute ; the eye is surmounted 
by a conspicuous red and papillous naked space ; the 
tarsi are generally spurless in both sexes, and partly or 
wholly covered with slender feathers, which in the 
Lagopodes are thicker and longer than in the rest, 
extending not only beyond the toes, but growing even 
on the sole of the foot — a peculiarity which, agreeably 
to the observation of Buffon, of all animals is again 
met with only in the hare. These feathers in winter 
