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III
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746
«*- RED GR.
3)i SCB.1PT10N.
Female.
g r o u Si
has been thought fit for the table of a prince. Is greatly efteemed
by the Bohemians about Rafter, when they fend it by way o f
prefent one to another: reckoned a rarity at Rome formerly, and
there kept in cages : are often caught with a bird-call made to
imitate their note.
La Gelinotted’EcolIè, Sri/, era. i. p. 199. pi. 22. f. i.'—Buf. oif. ii. p. 242.
La Gelinote hupée, Brif. orn. i. p. 209. 9.
L’Attagas, Buf. oif. ii. p. 252.
Red Game, Moorcock, or Goreock, Rail Syn. p. 54. A. 3.— Will. orn. p.
177.— Albin. i. pi. 23. 24.
Red Grous, Br. Zool. i. N° 94. pi. 43'.— Arfi. Zool,
Le*v% Muf.
n p H E male weighs nineteen ounces, and is in length fifteen
inches and a half. The bill black ; noftrils covered with
red and black feathers : irides hazel : over the eye a naked
fringed red membrane: at the bafe of the lower mandible a
white Ipot: the throat is red : the head and neck pale tawny red i
each feather marked with feveral bars of black: the back and
fcapulars of a deeper red, with a large black Ipot on the middle
of each feather : breaft and belly dull purplilh brown, croffed
with numerous narrow dulky lines: quills dufky : tail even, con-
fifting of fixteen feathers; the four middle ones barred with red;
all the others black : legs covered to the claws with foft white
feathers : the claws whitifh, broad, and ftrong..
Thé female is lefs, only weighing fifteen ounces : the colours
lefs bright than in the male, and the naked red part over the eye
lefs confpicuous»
2 Thefe-
G R O U S.
Thefe birds moftly frequent the northern parts of this ifland’; Peach an»
are very plentiful on all the wade grounds and mountains of Manners;
Cumberland-, alfo common in Yorkfhire, Derbyfhire, Lancafhire,
and Wales.. They pair in fpring, and lay from fix to ten eggs :
the young brood follow the hen the whole fummer; in winter
join in flocks of forty or fifty, and become remarkably Ihy and
wild : they always keep, on the top of the hills, fcarce ever
being found on the fides, never defeending into the vallies.
Their food is the mountain berries, and tops of heath*.
Buffonlpeaks of a white bird of this kind, which he names V arietie s.
L attagas blancf, and fays it is found about the mountains of
Switzerland and thofe of Vicenza but it is very doubtful whether
it belongs to this fpecies. The only variety which I recolleft is
that in the Leverian Mu/eum; which is very pale about the head,
and has many white feathers mixed among the reft of the JlrU,
but by no means patched with white; it therefore appears to
have a greater affinity with the Ptarmigan than with the Red
Grous.
The above author alfo quotes one from Rzaczynjki, with part
of the wings and belly white, the reft varied; and fays, that
they are frequently met with of a pure white about Novogrod in
Mufcovy; but we cannot venture to fpeak of them here with any
* X have often wondered, that neither this bird, nor the Black Cock, entered
the lift of the famed feaft of Archbijhop Nevil, efpecially as both are found in
Torkjhire ; but perhaps they were not accuftomed to the tafte of them, or they
did not think them a dainty in thofe days: in thefe they are efteemed, and fent
as prefents towards the fouth, both frefli and potted.
t H<Jt- <ti! oif. ii. p. 262.— Suppofed to be the fame with one fpoken of by
Gefner.
5 C 2 further