The male of the Black Grouse or BLACK GAME.
1427. Scot. Acts Jas. I. (1597), § 108. Patricks, plovers, black-cockes.
1753. Stewart’s Trial, App. 21. He would make black cocks of them, before they entered into possession, by which the deponent understood shooting them.
1815. Scott, Ld. Isles., V. xiii. The black-cock deem’d it day, and crew.
1832. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, I. 5. The blackcock (Tetrao tetrix) was heard harshly calling to his mates.
