grey-hen
(ˈgreɪhɛn)
The female of the Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix), the heath-hen. (The male is called the blackcock.)
| ? 1427 in Balfour's Practicks (1754) 542 Wyld foulis, sic as pertrikis, pluveris, black cockis, gray hennis. 1618 Naworth Househ. Bks. (Surtees) 79, 2 gray hens. 1787 G. White Selborne vi. (1789) 16 Within these last ten years one solitary grey hen was sprung by some beagles in beating for a hare. 1893 Newton Dict. Birds 393 Tetrao tetrix—the Blackcock and Greyhen, as the sexes are with us respectively called. |