Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

GROUSE

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 638 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

GROUSE , a word of uncertain origin,) now used generally by ornithologists to include all the " rough-footed " Gallinaceous birds, but in See also:

common. speech applied almost exclusively, when used alone, to the Tetrao scoticus of See also:Linnaeus, the Lagopus scoticus of See also:modern systematists—more particularly called in See also:English the red grouse, but till the end of the 18th See also:century almost invariably spoken of as the See also:Moor-See also:fowl or Moor-See also:game. The effect which this See also:species is supposed to have had on the See also:British legislature, and therefore on See also:history, is well known, for it was the common belief that See also:parliament always See also:rose when the See also:season for grouse-See also:shooting began (See also:August 12th); while according to the Orkneyinga See also:Saga (ed. Jonaeus, p. 356; ed. See also:Anderson, p. 168) events of some importance in the See also:annals of See also:North See also:Britain followed from its pursuit in See also:Caithness in the See also:year 1157. The red grouse is found on See also:moors from See also:Monmouthshire and See also:Derbyshire northward to the Orkneys, as well as in most of the See also:Hebrides. It inhabits similar situations throughout See also:Wales and See also:Ireland, but it does not naturally occur beyond the limits of the British Islands,2 and is the only species among birds See also:peculiar to them. The word " species " may in this See also:case be used advisedly (since the red grouse invariably " breeds true," it admits of an easy diagnosis, and it has a definite See also:geographical range); but scarcely any zoologist can doubt of its common origin with the See also:willow-grouse, Logo pus albus (L. subalpinus or L. See also:saliceti of some authors), that inhabits a subarctic See also:zone from See also:Norway across the 1It seems first to occur (O. Salusbury Brereton, Archaeologia, iii. 157) as " grows " in an See also:ordinance for the regulation of the royal See also:household dated "apud Eltham, mens. See also:Jan.

22 See also:

Hen. VIII.," i.e. 1531, and considering the locality must refer to See also:black game. It is found in an See also:Act of Parliament I Jac. I. cap. 27, § 2, i.e. 1603, and, as reprinted in the Statutes at Large, stands as now commonly spelt, but by many writers or printers the final e was omitted in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1611 See also:Cotgrave had " Poule griesche. A See also:Moore-henne; the henne of the Grice [in ed. 1673 " Griece "] or Mooregame " (Dictionarie of the See also:French and English See also:Tongues, s.v. Pottle). The most likely derivation seems to be from the old French word griesche, greoche or griais (meaning speckled, and cognate with griseus, grisly or See also:grey), which was applied to some See also:kind of See also:partridge, or according to Brunetto See also:Latini (Tres. p.

211) to a See also:

quail, " porce quo ele fu premiers trovee en Grece." The See also:Oxford See also:Dictionary repudiates the possibility of " grouse " being a See also:spurious singular of an alleged plural " Brice," and, with regard to the possibility of " grows " being a plural of " grow," refers to Giraldus Cambrensis (c. 1210), Topogr. Hib. See also:opera (Rolls) v. 47: " gallinae campestres, quas vulgariter grutas vocant." 2 It was successfully, though with much trouble, introduced by Mr Oscar See also:Dickson on a See also:tract of See also:land near Gottenburg in See also:Sweden (Svenska Jagarforbundets Nya Tidskrift, 1868, p. 64 et See also:alibi). continents of See also:Europe and See also:Asia, as well as North See also:America from the Aleutian Islands to See also:Newfoundland. The red grouse indeed is rarely or never found away from the heather on which chiefly it subsists; while the willow-grouse in many parts of the Old See also:World seems to prefer the shrubby growth of See also:berry-bearing See also:plants (Vaccinium and others) that, often thickly interspersed with willows and birches, clothes the higher levels or the See also:lower See also:mountain-slopes, and it flourishes in the New World where heather scarcely exists, and a " See also:heath " in its strict sense is unknown. It is true that the willow-grouse always becomes See also:white in See also:winter, which the red grouse never does; but in summer there is a considerable resemblance between the two species, the See also:cock willow-grouse having his See also:head, See also:neck and See also:breast of nearly the same See also:rich See also:chestnut-See also:brown as his British representative, and, though his back be lighter in See also:colour, as is also the whole plumage of his See also:mate, than is found in the red grouse, in other respects the two species are precisely alike. No distinction can be discovered in their See also:voice, their eggs, their build, nor in their anatomical details, so far as these have been investigated and compared.' Moreover, the red grouse, restricted as is its range, varies in colour not inconsiderably according to locality. Though the red grouse does not, after the manner of other members of the genus Lagopus, become white in winter, See also:Scotland possesses a species of the genus which does. This is the See also:ptarmigan, L. mucus or L. alpinus, which differs far more in structure, station and habits from the red grouse than that does from the willow-grouse, and in Scotland is far less abundant, haunting ' A very interesting subject for discussion would be whether Lagopus scoticus or L. albus has varied most from the common stock of both. Looking to the fact that the former is the only species of the genus which does not assume white clothing in winter, an evolutionist might at first deem the variation greatest in its case; but then it must be See also:borne in mind that the species of Lagopus which turn white differ in that respect from all other See also:groups of the See also:family Tetraonidae.

Furthermore every species of Lagopus (even L. leucurus, the whitest of all) has its first set of remiges coloured brown. These are dropped when the See also:

bird is about See also:half-grown, and in all the species but L. scoticus white remiges are then produced. If therefore the successive phases assumed by any See also:animal in the course of its progress to maturity indicate the phases through which the species has passed, there may have been a See also:time when all the species of Lagopus wore a brown See also:livery even when adult, and the white See also:dress donned in winter has been imposed upon the wearers by causes that can be easily suggested. The white plumage of the birds of this See also:group protects them from danger during the snows of a protracted winter. But the red grouse, instead of perpetuating directly the more See also:ancient properties of an See also:original Lagopus that underwent no See also:great seasonal See also:change of plumage, may derive its 'ancestry from the widely-ranging willow-grouse, which in an See also:epoch comparatively See also:recent (in the See also:geological sense) may have stocked Britain, and See also:left descendants that, under conditions in which the See also:assumption of a white garb would be almost fatal to the preservation of the species, have reverted (though doubtless with some modifications) to a See also:comparative immutability essentially the same as that of the primal Lagopus.only the highest and most barren mountains. It is said to have formerly inhabited both Wales and See also:England, but there is no See also:evidence of its See also:appearance in Ireland. On the See also:continent of Europe it is found most numerously in Norway, but at an See also:elevation far above the growth of trees, and it occurs on the See also:Pyrenees and on the See also:Alps. It also inhabits See also:northern See also:Russia. Ptarmigan. In North America, See also:Greenland and See also:Iceland it is represented by a very nearly allied See also:form—so much so indeed that it is only at certain seasons that the slight difference between them can be detected. This form is the L. rupestris of authors, and it would appear to be found also in See also:Siberia (See also:Ibis, 1878, p. 148).

Spitzbergen is inhabited by a large form which has received recogni- See also:

Blackcock. tion as L. hemileucurus, and the northern end of the See also:chain of the Rocky Mountains is tenanted by a very distinct species, the smallest and perhaps the most beautiful of the genus, L. leucurus, which has all the feathers of the tail white. The bird, however, to which the name of grouse in all strictness belongs is probably the Tetrao tetrix of Linnaeus—the blackcock and greyhen, as the sexes are respectively called. It is distributed over most of the heath-See also:country of England, except in See also:East Anglia, where attempts to introduce it have been only partially successful. It also occurs in North Wales and very generally throughout Scotland, though not in See also:Orkney, See also:Shetland or the See also:Outer Hebrides, nor in Ireland. On the continent of Europe it has a very wide range, and it extends into Siberia. In See also:Georgia its See also:place is taken by a distinct species, on which a See also:Polish naturalist (Prot. Zool. Society, 1875, p. 267) has conferred the name gf T. mlokosiewiczi. Both these birds have much in common with their larger congener the See also:capercally and its eastern representative. The species of the genus Bonasa, of which the See also:European B. sylvestris is the type, does not inhabit the British Islands.

It is perhaps the most delicate game-bird that comes to table. It is the gelinotte of the French, the Haselhuhn of Germans, and Hjerpe of Scandinavians. Like its transatlantic congener B. umbellus, the ruffed grouse or See also:

birch-partridge (of which there are two other See also:local forms, B. umbelloides and B. sabinii), it is purely a See also:forest-bird. The same may be said of the species of Canace, of which two forms are found in America, C. canadensis, the spruce-partridge, and C. franklini, and also of the Siberian C. falcipennis. Nearly allied to these birds is the group known as Dendragapus, containing three large and See also:fine forms D. obscurus, D. fuliginosus,and D. richardsoni—all peculiar to North America. Then there are Centrocercus urophasianus, the See also:sage-cock of the plains of See also:Columbia and See also:California, and Pedioecetes, the See also:sharp-tailed grouse, with its two forms, P. phasianellus and P. columbianus, while finally Cupidonia, the See also:prairie-hen, also with two local forms, C. cupido and C. pallidicincta, is a bird that in the See also:United States of America possesses considerable economic value, enormous See also:numbers being consumed there, and also exported to Europe. The various sorts of grouse are nearly all figured in Elliot's Mono-graph of the Tetraoninae, and an excellent See also:account of the See also:American species is given in See also:Baird, See also:Brewer and Ridgway's North American Birds (iii. 414-465). See also SHOOTING. (A.

End of Article: GROUSE

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
GROUPS, THEORY 		[next]
GROVE (O.E. graf, cf. O.E. gr(efa, brushwood, later...

Site © 2006 - Net Industries