Blackcock

Blackcock, Black Game, Black Grouse, or Heath Fowl (Tetrao tetrix). a British game bird of the same genus as the grouse (q.v.). The adult male is about 22 inches in length, and weighs from 4 lbs. to 4-1/2 lbs.; general plumage bluish-black, secondaries tipped with white, and forming with the neighbouring coverts a band across each wing, under tail-coverts white; legs furnished with dark brown hair-like feathers speckled with white, toes pectinated; the outer tail feathers are much longer than those in the middle, and bend outwards on each side; there is a patch of bare scarlet skin over each eye, and this is inflated in the breeding season. The female, or grey hen, is a much smaller bird, little more than 2 lbs. in weight; general plumage rusty brown, barred and mottled with black or dark brown; under tail-coverts white, tail orange-brown, with slight tendency to become curved. The plumage of the young birds is like that of the females. The males are polygamous, and during many weeks they congregate in numbers to fight together, and to display their charms before the hens. The hen lays from six to ten eggs, white, speckled with orange-brown, in a rudely constructed nest, generally among long, coarse grass in some marshy spot. The male takes no part in incubation. These birds feed on the seeds of rushes and other plants, the shoots of heath, berries, worms, and insects, and often visit corn-fields and stubble for grain. In winter they eat the tops and buds of birch and alder, and the tender shoots of young firs. They are highly esteemed for table. The shooting season opens on August 20th and closes December 10th, with some slight local variation. The blackcock was formerly common in the south of England, where now it is becoming rare. It is more common in the north of England, and abundant in Scotland. It is found in Scandinavia, on the mountain ranges of central Europe, and through Siberia to Manchuria and the north of China. Cases of hybridism between the blackcock and other game birds are recorded.