_Canachites_ (_Canace_) _canadensis_, the Canada Grouse or "Spruce-Partridge," found from Alaska and British America to the north-eastern United States, is black, with lead-coloured bars above, and a white pectoral band below, the tail having a chestnut tip, which is wanting in the browner _C. franklini_ of the north-western Rocky Mountains. In the female the grey is chiefly replaced by orange. It is a tame species, and flies but a short distance before alighting on some tree. The food consists of "spruce" buds and larch needles, with berries of _Vaccinium_ (bilberry, cranberry, etc.), _Empetrum_ (crowberry), and so forth. It is not polygamous; but a most curious account of the cock's habits of showing off and drumming is given by Bendire.[165] The hen constructs a nest of dry moss, leaves, and twigs upon the ground, under shelter of some overhanging bough, and lays from eight to eighteen reddish-buff eggs with brown spots. _Falcipennis hartlaubi_, a very similar species, distinguished by slender sickle-shaped outer primaries, occurs in North-East Siberia, Kamtschatka, and Saghalien. _Tetrao urogallus_, the Capercaillie, apparently not uncommon in Scotland until 1770, and exterminated in Ireland about the same date, was reintroduced at Taymouth Park, Perthshire, in 1838, and is now fairly plentiful in Central North Britain. Failure has attended similar attempts in Ireland. The discoveries of bones in Teesdale and near Torquay shew that this bird's range once extended to Yorkshire and Devonshire, while similar finds have been made in Aquitaine and Denmark. At the present day it inhabits sub-alpine pine-forests from Scandinavia, the Pyrenees, North Italy, and Greece to Lake Baikal and the Altai Mountains, being represented in the Urals by a sub-species, _T. uralensis_. The male is almost entirely blackish-grey above, with somewhat darker tail, and black below with greenish chest. The female is smaller, and is mottled with brown, buff, black, and white, merging into rufous on the breast, which is barred with black. A variable {237}amount of white occurs beneath in both sexes. The brown hair-like feathers on the legs are longest in winter, a fact true also in the Ptarmigan and elsewhere. A cross between the hen Capercaillie and the Black-Cock is known in North Europe as the Rackelhahn (_T. medius_).[166] The "lek" or "spel," as the love-performance is called, has been described in detail by many authors;[167] it takes place in spring, and occasionally in autumn, when the excited male struts with drooping wings and erect outspread tail before the assembled females, uttering curious noisy cries, to which they reply with softer plaintive notes. He is said to be deaf during the "play." At times he takes up a position on some lofty bough with the evident intention of challenging his rivals, who quickly respond to the provocation; ere long they join in combat upon the ground, leaping and rushing upon one another in their blind rage, and using