Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/284

 270 GROUND HOG l A me, and was made a marshal of France. He played a conspicuous part in the concluding scenes of the hundred days ; at the head of a corps of the army, he marched into Belgium against the united English and Prussians, fought successfully, June 16, at Fleurus and Ligny, received orders from Napoleon to follow up Blucher and the Prussian army to prevent their joining the English, and, strictly adhering to the very letter of his orders, declined, notwith- standing the entreaties of his subordinate gen- erals, to march toward Waterloo, June 18, and thus became the indirect cause of the defeat of the French army. Being proscribed by a royal decree on the second restoration, he came to the United States, and lived for five years in Philadelphia. An amnesty recalled him to France in 1821 ; and after the revolution of July, 1830, his rank of marshal was restored. He defended his conduct in several pamphlets, the most important points of which are to be found in his Fragments historiques (Paris, 1840). GROUND HOG. See WOODCHUCK. GROUND NUT. See PEANUT. GROUND PINE. See HORSETAIL. GROUNDSEL, the common name of senecio vulgaris, of the natural order composites. It is a little, weedy plant, found in waste places and in gardens from New England to Pennsylvania, adventitiously introduced from abroad. The name groundsel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for " ground glutton," probably in allu- sion to its character as a weed. It is an incon- spicuous annual, and not difficult to keep in subjection. Its seeds are a favorite food of many small birds, and the flower heads are sometimes gathered for the purpose of feeding canary birds. Groundsel has no ray flowers, but in our native senecios the heads are mostly radiate and showy. Among the commonest of these is the golden ragroot (8. aureus), an elegant ornament of our wet meadows ; and in the greenhouse the rich purple blossoms of 8. elegant are much admired. The fireweed, so conspicuous upon recently burnt lands for its coarse rank growth and white silky heads, was formerly called a senecio, but is now put in a separate genus, and is erecJithites hieracifo- lia (Raf.). Senecios are found in every part of the globe, especially in South Africa. Hum- boldt noticed some species in the upper regions of the Andes, just below the snow line. De Candolle describes nearly 600 species, of which 50 or more are natives of North America. GROUXD SQURREL. See CHIPMUNK. GROUSE, the name of gallinaceous birds of the family tetraonidos, characterized by a short broad bill with culmen curved; the nostrils concealed by closely set feathers in the nasal groove; wings short, concave, and rounded; tarsi moderate and densely feathered ; the toes usually naked, with scaly pectinations along the edges, but feathered to the claws in the snow grouse or ptarmigans. The tail varies in l-:iirth and shape, and consists of 16, 18, or 20 feathers : there is generally a bare space about GROUSE the orbits, with fringed processes above the upper lid ; the hind toe is short, and slightly elevated. The old genus tetrao (Linn.) has been subdivided into many genera by modern systematists ; it included both the grouse and the ptarmigans or moor fowl, the latter of which will be described under PTARMIGAN. The grouse are the largest of the family, robust and round-bodied, frequenting heathy woods, feeding on young shoots, tender buds, and ber- ries, in pine and spruce forests and cedar swamps in the northern regions of America, Europe, and Asia. In the genus tetrao (Linn.) and the allied centrocercus (Swains.), the legs are feathered .as far as the basal membrane of the toes; the tail is lengthened, slightly nar- rowed to the somewhat rounded tip, and the shafts stiffened ; no ruff on the sides of the neck. The largest species is the wood grouse or capercailzie (T. urogallus, Linn.), measur- ing nearly 3 ft. in length, and weighing about 15 Ibs. ; the feathers of the head and cheeks are elongated and erectile; the hind neck, back, and sides are minutely varied with black, brown, and gray ; the lower breast and belly black, with a few white feathers ; the .fore part of breast rich glossy green, with metallic reflections. The females are much smaller, and, like the young males, are brown with black crescent marks. In size, strong hooked bill, and noble bearing, it resembles a bird of prey; it is nearly extinct in Great Britain, though it is found in Norway, Swe- den, Russia, and northern Asia. It inhabits forests of pine and birch with an undergrowth of juniper ; it is extremely shy, but will breed in confinement, and may be domesticated, in which state it feeds on grains and resinous twigs. This species perches in trees ; the nest is placed amid brakes and underbrush; the eggs are 8 to 16, yellowish white, with darker yellow spots. The T. Jiybridus (Linn.) is gen- erally considered a hybrid between the caper- cailzie and the black grouse (T. tetrix, Linn.); it is found in northern Europe, and is from 2^ to 2 ft. long ; the general color is black, with purple and bronzed reflections, dashes of white on the belly, and on the secondaries a spot of the same ; the scapulars and wing coverts deep brown, with delicate yellowish waves; tail slightly forked, the upper coverts black, the under tipped with white. The black grouse has been described under BLACKCOCK. Among the American species is the Canada grouse, sometimes called erroneously the spruce par- tridge (T. Canadensis, Linn.). It is about 16 in. long; the prevailing color is black in the male, each feather of the upper parts waved with leaden gray ; those of the sides, scapulars, and outer surface of the wings have a central white streak expanding toward the tip; the under parts are mostly uniform black, broadly tipped with white on the sides, this color sometimes forming a pectoral band ; bar across base of upper mandible, spot on lower lid, line on cheeks and throat, white; quills dark