strayed to the heathy portions of the neighbouring eountiés
of Berkshire and Hampshire on the one side, and to the
district of the St- Leonard’s; and Tilgate Forests in Sussex
on the other. In the south-west of Hampshire, however,
in the New Forest, they have never become extinct: they are
found, although sparingly, in Wiltshire, and ini suitable
localities in Dorsetshire; becoming tolerably abundant again,
on the Quantocks and the Bren dons in Somersetshire* and:
numerous where that county joins Devon on the wilds of
Exmoor. They are . also met with in. some parts of South
Devon, and, although by no means common, they breed ©nl
the eastern moors of Cornwall. In Glamorganshire--they
became extinct prior to 1820, but they are found in .Brecon,
Radnorshire and some other Welsh counties ; in Shropshire;
and in Staffordshire, especially about Cannock Chase, >4bey
were recently abundant. Rare, if not extinct, in Charnwood
Forest in, Leicestershire, they still, inhabit-Sherwood Forest
m Nottinghamshire, north of which they are .found,jUJ
although locally, and in some cases owing to introduction,
■—in every county'in England, An isolated-and 'decreasing
colony exists in Norfolk-on .the wild heathy tracts about
Bawsey, Dersingham, Sandringham, and Snéttisham ; and as
Sir Thomas Browneifteinp. Charles- IL) says,, “ I havh'heard
some have-heem seen about Lynn,,” it:appears probable|that
thé. «peciesris indigenous therkA In Lincolnshire; acedrdmg 1
M Hr. Cordeaux,-.they were introduced some iyears tago on
thé wild district -near. Frodlingham on Trentside. !
In Scotland, although less .generally -distributed than in j
former years, Black Grouse are found, more or lbs® abundantly,
on all the mountainous and billy districts and-.qnl
many isolated jj patches of upland. Heather and sheep-land; Ï
They, are--.plentiful in many Vf the Inner Hebri^esjrespe- ]
cially on- Mull; -.whilst in the -northern - portion of Islay, ;
although • rib is bare of cover,: they are,; ac,cording to>Ma\ j
Elwes, rapidly increasing.*- They have -not:’ as. yet Jbeenl
successfully introduced in the. Orkneys*^ the. Shetland
Islands. Thompson considers that there is - nftjsatfsfkc tory's
R. -Gray,Birds.of the Wést of Scrffitfad,’ p . - 2 ^ t
evidence of the species having ever been indigenous in
Ireland, and attempts at introduction made in Antrim,
and recently by Colonel Cooper, of Markree Castle, Sligo,
have resulted in failure.
In Norway and Sweden the Black Grouse is widely dis,
tributed wherever there are woods and moorlands up to the
limit of the birch forests in about 69° N. lat., and it even
ascends the fells beyond the birch belt. Rare on the heaths
of Denmark, and scarcely known in Holland and Belgium,
except towards their southern and eastern frontiers, it her
comes tolerably numerous in suitable districts of Germany;
and is more or less abundant on both sides of the mountain
ranges of Central Europe from the Alps to the . Carpathians j
A resident in the wooded portions of Lombardy and Liguria,
it even occurs as a straggler in the Apennines .down-to the
Modenese. In France it appears to be confined, to the
mountains on the eastern frontier, but -Crespon seems
inclined to believe in its occurrence in the Cevennes, which
would tend to strengthen the hitherto unsupported state*
ment made by Dr. Companyó that it is found in the Eastern
Pyrenees: a district which differs in many important.natural
features from the Central and Western portions of -that
chain, from which it is not recorded- In Finland, thé
greater part of Russia, and even in Poland, fe%.ü>generally
distributed, extending as far as Sarepta on the Volga; but
in the Caucasus it-is; unknown, its place being taken by a
very distinct although closely allied species, named, after its
discoverer, Tetrao'mtokosieiiMCMi? The male of the latter -is a
smaller and more slender bird than the Black-cock; and- its
entire plumage is of a deep glossy black, as may* ho' seen on
reference to Mr. Dresser’s fine plate in the.| Birds of Europe,’
vol. vii. Beyond the Ural the Black Grouse stretches across
Siberia with .the limit of the forest growth to Mantchuria
and Northern China, but precise details as tb its, southern
distribution, are as=: yét.> wanting. Siberian examples are more
feathered about the:legs than European ones; |
The Black-cock is polygamous, and, like the Capercaillie,
has bis pairing-grounds, which are visited, somewhat eari|g?|