below: this fact again incontestibly proves how great an influence the character of the earth's surface may exercise over the manners and manoeuvres of those fowls and animals whose geographical range extends over distant and varied regions.
W. H.
Stobo Hope, July, 1843.
Notes on the Grouse. By W. H.[1]
The grouse (Teträo in Ornithology) is a genus of birds belonging to the order Gallinae. In all our species there is a naked scarlet skin above the eye, and the feet are covered with feathers to the toes.[2] The following species are found in Scotland. The white grouse or ptarmigan (Teträo Lagopus) is about fifteen inches in length, and weighs about nineteen ounces: its plumage is a pale brown or ash colour, and it is only found on our highest mountains, the summits of the loftiest Highlands in Scotland, the Hebrides and Orkneys: it is said formerly to have inhabited the lofty hills in the neighbourhood of Keswick, in Cumberland. The red game or moor-fowl (Teträo Scoticus) is only known in the British islands: the length of the male is fifteen and a half inches, and its weight nineteen ounces. The black grouse or blackcock (Teträo Tetrix) is fond of woody and mountainous regions, where it finds bilberries and other mountain fruits throughout the summer; in winter it feeds on the tops of the heather: a full grown blackcock measures twenty-two inches in length, and weighs about four pounds. The cock of the wood (Teträo Urogallus) also inhabits woody mountainous countries; forests of pine afford them both shelter and food, for they devour the tops of the pines in such quantities as to impart a strong and disagreeable taste to their flesh: they also feed on various wild berries. Although these birds are common in Scandinavia, Germany, and other European countries, they have never been found in any part of Great Britain except the Highlands of Scotland. They are usually called capercalzie, or, in old law books, caperkally, and are supposed to be the wood or great grouse of Pennant, and the Ceilingconia of the ancient
- ↑ William Hogg (see "Contents" (Wikisource-ed.))
- ↑ We may perhaps be allowed to observe that although in all the species the feathers may he said to extend to the toes, yet in two (Urogallus and Tetrix) the toes themselves are naked, while in other two (Scoticus and mutus) they are clothed with feathers to their extremities: the former pair of species have beeu termed Tetrao, the latter pair Lagopus. This generic subdivision is, we believe, almost universally ad milted. Ed.
