TETRAD, Lill. GROUS.
Bill short and thick, arched above, convex, bent down towards the tip ; nostrils basal, half closed with an arch ed scale above, and invested with small feathers ; eye brows naked, warty, and scarlet ; tarsi feathered; wings short and rounded.
An appropriate characteristic of the family is the ca runculated skin over the eyes, forming a sort of eye-brow, which is more or less of a red colour. The tarsi are co vered with feathers, but want spurs. Grous are polyga mous, the females only taking charge of incubating and rearing the young They make their nests on the ground, in a very artless manner, of a few small branches of pines, heath-tops, &c. They produce many eggs, usually breed only once in the year, and the young run about as soon as hatched, often with pieces of shell adhering to them. Their food consists of seeds, berries, a few insects, and the tops of heaths, and of a few evergreens. They reside in the colder and more temperate latitudes; and such of them as are found in the more southern regions, haunt the highest mountains, where, in course, the temperature is much reduced.
7', urogallus, Lin. &c. Wood Grous, Great Grous, Cock -of the Wood or of the Mountain, Capercailzie or Capercailly of the Scots. Neck and upper parts of the body dusky, transversely waved with cinereous, dusky, varied with white spots beneath. axillx white, breast green, glossed with brassy ; tail black, and its feathers marked with two white spots towards the top. ly variegated with black and ash-colour, the throat, breast, and tail feathers rufous, and the latter barred with black. There are several varieties, which have been briefly indi cated by Nillson, in his Ornithologia Suecica. In size this species is little interior to a turkey, and sometimes weighs twelve or thirteen, but more frequently, seven or eight pounds, measuring two feet nine inches in length, and three feet in extent of wing. The female is consider ably smaller, rarely measuring above twenty-six inches in length, or weighing more than four pounds. The young of both sexes, during the first year, greatly resemble the female ; and the males of the second moult have the upper parts of the body greyish-black, and the green on the breast, which is afterwards so glossy, very dull.
This stately species inhabits the wooded and mountain ous regions of Europe and northern Asia, occurring abun dantly in the pine forests of Russia, Siberia, Norway, Swe den, &c. A smaller variety than the common sort is found in Norway and Lapland, the furthest extreme of Eu rope towards the Icy Sea. The wood grous is also met with in the Alps and Pyrenees, and in some of the ele vated and bleak districts of France, Italy, and Greece. It was formerly not uncommon in Ireland and Scotland, but may now be said to he extirpated from both. It princi
pally feeds on the berries of the juniper and different spe cies of vaccinia, on the seeds and tops of pines, the leaves of buckwheat, the tops of heath, &c. and on worms and insects. Like domestic poultry, these birds swallow small pebbles, and scratch the soil with their feet. In the morn ing and evening they resort to the copses for food, and they retire during the day into the thickest recesses of the: woods. Their season commences about the middle of April, when they perch with little interruption, and when the male may be seen at sunrise and in the eve ning, much agitated, on one of the largest branches of the pines, with his tail raised and expanded, and his wings drooping, sometimes walking backward and forwards, with his neck stretched out, his head inflated, and his eye-brows of a deep crimson. His wooing call commences by a sort of explosion, instantly followed by a sound like the whet ting of a scythe, which ceases and recommences alternately for about an hour, and is then terminated by a similar ex plosive noise as at the beginning. During this singular exhibition, he is apparently so deaf and insensible, that, though at other times very wild and vigilant, the sports man may gradually approach him, and take a fatal aim._ This ardour of temperament continues till June. The fe male deposits in an artless nest on the ground and among moss from eight to sixteen eggs, which are about the size of those of the common hen, but more obtuse at the ends, and yellowish-white, sprinkled with irregular yellow spots. When she quits them, in quest of food, she covers them over with leaves or moss. The young follow her with great agility, immediately on their exclusion, and she leads them to procure wild berries and the pupa: of ants. The brood follow the mother for nearly two months, at the ex piration of which period the young males entirely forsake her, living harmoniously together till the beginning of spring, when they separate and affect solitude, never ap proaching but in the spirit of hostility, every male being jealous of an intruder, and resisting him with determined obstinacy. In the provinces of Smoland and Gothland in Sweden, a hybrid but barren offspring is produced be tween the present species and the black grous. The flesh of the former, though very dark coloured, is much relish ed by epicures, when it has not contracted too much of a bitter flavour, by copiously feeding on juniper berries; and it is often conveyed in winter, in a perfectly eatable state, from Norway to this island. The eggs, too, are much in request, and are accounted preferable to those of every other bird ; but all attempts to habituate the species to confinement in a poultry yard appear to have failed.