"Unlike the Capercali, which mostly roosts in trees," says Mr. Lloyd, "the Black Cock almost invariably passes the night on the ground, and in the winter, more especially if the cold be intense, it not seldom _buries itself in the snow_." Nilsson indeed supposes that the bird only makes a hollow in the snow and allows itself to be covered by the falling flakes; but Mr. Lloyd assures us that the bird makes a regular burrow for itself, the depth depending, it is generally believed, on the mildness or severity of the weather. "Scores of times," he says, "when crossing glades and other openings in the forest, where the surface of the snow, to the casual observer, appeared to be as smooth as glass, one or more Black Cocks have suddenly emerged from beneath the snow, almost at my feet, and when expecting every moment others to follow I have carefully looked about me, I never could discover anything beyond the slightest indentation in the snow where the bird had burrowed, the hole itself being filled up by the sides collapsing; and yet perhaps within the next minute half a score of Black Cocks would fly up all around me. That their heads were above the surface previously to their leaving the snow I hold to be impossible, nor can I conceive that even their beaks protruded as others will have it. If air be needful to birds when thus imbedded in the snow, their beak no doubt forms an imperceptible orifice, through which they are enabled to respire." In addition to his own experiences in the matter, Mr. Lloyd quotes the observations of the amusing though sometimes "marvel-relating" Bishop Oppidam: "In the winter-time the Black Grouse take care of themselves in this manner: they first fill their craw with as much food as it will hold, till it hangs like a bag under their necks, whereby they are provided for something to live on for some time; then they will drop themselves down into the soft snow and do not stay in their first hole, but undermine and burrow in the snow some fathoms from it; and there they make a small opening for their bills, and thus be warm and comfortable."