[1] The word "group," which appears first in English in the sense of
an assemblage of figures in an artistic design, picture, &c., is
adapted from the Fr. _groupe_, which is to be referred to the
Teutonic word meaning "knot," "mass," "bunch," represented in English
by "crop" (q.v.). The technical mathematical sense is not older than
1870.
GROUSE, a word of uncertain origin,[1] now used generally by
ornithologists to include all the "rough-footed" Gallinaceous birds, but
in common speech applied almost exclusively, when used alone, to the
_Tetrao scoticus_ of Linnaeus, the _Lagopus scoticus_ of modern
systematists--more particularly called in English the red grouse, but
till the end of the 18th century almost invariably spoken of as the
Moor-fowl or Moor-game. The effect which this species is supposed to
have had on the British legislature, and therefore on history, is well
known, for it was the common belief that parliament always rose when the
season for grouse-shooting began (August 12th); while according to the
_Orkneyinga Saga_ (ed. Jonaeus, p. 356; ed. Anderson, p. 168) events of
some importance in the annals of North Britain followed from its pursuit
in Caithness in the year 1157.
The red grouse is found on moors from Monmouthshire and Derbyshire
northward to the Orkneys, as well as in most of the Hebrides. It
inhabits similar situations throughout Wales and Ireland, but it does
not naturally occur beyond the limits of the British Islands,[2] and is
the only species among birds peculiar to them. The word "species" may in
this case be used advisedly (since the red grouse invariably "breeds
true," it admits of an easy diagnosis, and it has a definite
geographical range); but scarcely any zoologist can doubt of its common
origin with the willow-grouse, _Lagopus albus_ (_L. subalpinus_ or _L.
saliceti_ of some authors), that inhabits a subarctic zone from Norway
across the continents of Europe and Asia, as well as North America from
the Aleutian Islands to 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 World seems to prefer the
shrubby growth of berry-bearing plants (_Vaccinium_ and others) that,
often thickly interspersed with willows and birches, clothes the higher
levels or the lower mountain-slopes, and it flourishes in the New World
where heather scarcely exists, and a "heath" in its strict sense is
unknown. It is true that the willow-grouse always becomes white in
winter, which the red grouse never does; but in summer there is a
considerable resemblance between the two species, the cock willow-grouse
having his head, neck and breast of nearly the same rich chestnut-brown
as his British representative, and, though his back be lighter in
colour, as is also the whole plumage of his mate, than is found in the
red grouse, in other respects the two species are precisely alike. No
distinction can be discovered in their voice, their eggs, their build,
nor in their anatomical details, so far as these have been investigated
and compared.[3] Moreover, the red grouse, restricted as is its range,
varies in colour not inconsiderably according to locality.
[Illustration: Red Grouse.]
Though the red grouse does not, after the manner of other members of the
genus _Lagopus_, become white in winter, Scotland possesses a species of
the genus which does. This is the ptarmigan, _L. mutus_ 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 only the highest and most barren mountains. It
is said to have formerly inhabited both Wales and England, but there is
no evidence of its appearance in Ireland. On the continent of Europe it
is found most numerously in Norway, but at an elevation far above the
growth of trees, and it occurs on the Pyrenees and on the Alps. It also
inhabits northern Russia. In North America, Greenland and Iceland it is
represented by a very nearly allied 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 Siberia (_Ibis_, 1879, p. 148). Spitzbergen
is inhabited by a large form which has received recognition as _L.
hemileucurus_, and the northern end of the 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.
[Illustration: Ptarmigan.]
[Illustration: Blackcock.]
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-country of England, except in 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
Orkney, Shetland or the Outer Hebrides, nor in Ireland. On the continent
of Europe it has a very wide range, and it extends into Siberia. In
Georgia its place is taken by a distinct species, on which a Polish
naturalist (_Proc. Zool. Society_, 1875, p. 267) has conferred the name
of _T. mlokosiewiczi_. Both these birds have much in common with their
larger congener the capercally and its eastern representative.
The species of the genus _Bonasa_, of which the 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
birch-partridge (of which there are two other local forms, _B.
umbelloides_ and _B. sabinii_), it is purely a 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 fine forms
_D. obscurus_, _D. fuliginosus_, and _D. richardsoni_--all peculiar to
North America. Then there are _Centrocercus urophasianus_, the sage-cock
of the plains of Columbia and California, and _Pedioecetes_, the
sharp-tailed grouse, with its two forms, _P. phasianellus_ and _P.
columbianus_, while finally _Cupidonia_, the prairie-hen, also with two
local forms, _C. cupido_ and _C. pallidicincta_, is a bird that in the
United States of America possesses considerable economic value, enormous
numbers being consumed there, and also exported to Europe.
The various sorts of grouse are nearly all figured in Elliot's
_Monograph of the Tetraoninae_, and an excellent account of the
American species is given in Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's _North
American Birds_ (iii. 414-465). See also SHOOTING. (A. N.)