Diversions of a NaturalistLankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
History
Diversions of a Naturalist
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
Natural history
Now we revert to the grouse-birds, a family for which the zoologist's
name is Tetraonidæ. They all have the beautiful crimson arch of
bare knobby skin above each eye which gives its chief beauty to our
grouse. The family contains several genera and included species. The
largest species is the capercailzie (a Gaelic word), or cock of the
wood, called by the French "coque du bois," by the Germans "auerhahn"
(auerhuhn for the hen bird), and by the Norwegians "tiur." It is
placed in the genus Tetrao (which gives its name to the "family"), and
receives the specific name "urogallus." This fine bird was formerly
native in England, as well as in Scotland and Ireland, and is found
in the pine forests of Europe from Spain to Lapland and Greece. It
has been re-established in Scotland since 1838. An allied species is
found in Siberia. The black grouse (often called black cock and grey
hen) is a second species of the genus Tetrao, namely, T. tectrix. It
is often called "Lyrurus tetrix." The French name for it is "coq de
bruyère"; the German is "birkhahn." It is a smaller bird than the
capercailzie, but frequently produces hybrids with that species. The
beautifully curled tail-feathers are favourite adornments for the hat
of mountaineers and hunters in the Tyrol and Switzerland.
Though the word "grouse" may have been first applied (as some think)
to the black cock, it is now the proper appellation of the red grouse.
This bird is placed by zoologists in the genus Lagopus--the members
of which are easily distinguishable from other Tetraonidæ by the fact
that their feet and toes are well covered with feathers. "L. scoticus"
is the scientific name of the red grouse. Being a purely British bird,
it has no foreign designations. "L. saliceti" is the name of the
allied willow-grouse, which has an endless variety of names, owing to
its great range of distribution. The willow-grouse is often called
ptarmigan, and is sold as such to the number of thousands by poulterers
in our markets, but it is not the true ptarmigan. Owing to the fact
that its plumage is quite white in winter, there is much excuse for the
confusion. The name "ptarmigan" is the Gaelic word "tarmachan," and
no one has explained how the initial "p" came to be added to it. The
bird called in Scotland tarmachan or ptarmigan is a third species of
Lagopus. It is much rarer in Scotland than the red grouse, and lives in
high, bare ground. It is numerous at an elevation far above the growth
of trees in Norway, and occurs also in the Pyrenees and the Alps. It
turns white in winter (as do all the species of Lagopus except the red
grouse), and differs in many features of structure from the red grouse
and the willow-grouse. It is called "L. mutus." A fourth species of
Lagopus is L. rupestris, of North America, Greenland, Iceland, and
Siberia. Spitzbergen has a fifth species, L. hemileucurus, a large
form. The sixth and smallest species of Lagopus is the L. leucurus of
the Rocky Mountains.
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