Like most game birds, it is polygamous, and an old cock is very jealous of his hens, savagely attacking other males that come near him. When courting he performs various evolutions, drooping his wings and erecting his tail, and calling out vigorously at the same time. Their food consists chiefly of various seeds and berries, and in their season the tender shoots of the Scotch fir. The nest is merely a “scrape” in the ground, generally at the foot of a tree, and the eggs, some twelve in number, are reddish brown spotted and blotched, with darker shades of the same colour. The young feed largely on insects and worms, and are especially fond of ants. The male takes no part in the incubation or tending of the young. The male is very dark grey on the upper parts, breast glossy green, and the remainder of the under parts black. The feathers of the chin and throat are elongated. Length 36 in.; wing 16 in. The female, who is much smaller, is brownish all over, mottled and barred with buff and white. Length about 26 in. THE BLACK GROUSE Tetrao tetrix, Linnæus On the moors and woods of Scotland this is a common species, and it is also found locally in a few places in the west of England, but in some of its other English haunts, notably the New Forest, it has died out. Like the Capercaillie, they are polygamous, and gather together in spring, the cocks fighting and showing off in a variety of evolutions to the hens. Eventually each cock retires with his hens, and breeding commences in earnest. The nest is merely a scrape in the heather or on the outskirts of a wood, and the eggs, generally ten in number, are yellowish, spotted with reddish brown. The young feed chiefly on insects, but when adult, grain, berries, and the tender shoots of many plants constitute their diet. In autumn they visit the harvest-fields in large numbers at daybreak and dusk. The adult male is bluish black all over, with white under tail coverts and a white wing bar. Length 22 in.; wing 10·5 in. The female, usually known as the “Greyhen,” is of a warm brown, barred and marked with black. THE RED GROUSE Lagopus scoticus (Latham) This is the only exclusively British species which is found nowhere else—if we except the local races of many of the smaller birds, which can only be distinguished on a very close examination. Our Grouse differs from the “Ryper” of Norway, which is its nearest ally, by its black primaries, and in the fact that it does not assume a white dress in winter. [Illustration: RED GROUSE _Lagopus scoticus_ Male (left). Female (right)]