492 CAPERCAILLIE. 



area of coniferous woods has proved too restricted, and the species is 

 now often found in coverts largely consisting of oak and birch. The 

 females precede the males by one or two years in the search for new 

 quarters, and under these circumstances they often breed with the 

 Blackcock ; the male hybrid being a remarkably handsome bird, 

 with plum-coloured breast and a slightly forked tail. 



The Capercaillie inhabits the pine-forests of Scandinavia up to 

 lat. 70°, and in Denmark its remains are found in the kitchen- 

 middens of the prehistoric races who lived before the fir-woods had 

 given way to the oak and the birch. It is still abundant among the 

 conifers of Russia, but is decreasing in those of Poland, Northern 

 and Central Germany, the various branches of the Alps and Carpa- 

 thians, the Balkans, the Pyrenees, and the Cantabrian range. In 

 the Caucasus it is unknown. It is found from lat. 67° N. in Siberia 

 down to the Altai ^fountains and north-eastern Turkestan, and as 

 far as Lake Baikal ; east of which it is represented by two forms 

 which have the scapulars broadly tipped with white, and in males 

 from Kamchatka the white forms a complete bar. 



Early in spring the male Capercaillie begins his love-song of 

 peller, peller, peller, to attract the hens, at the same time erecting his 

 tail and drooping his wings in a sort of ecstasy: a proceeding known 

 as his " play " or " spel," and which is repeated for a short time about 

 Michaelmas. The nest is a hollow scraped in the ground under a 

 tree or bush, the 6-12 eggs being pale reddish-yellow, with brown 

 spots and blotches : measurements 2*2 by i'5 in. Incubation lasts 

 about a month, and the young are usually hatched early in June. 

 The food of the adults consists of tender shoots of the Scotch fir 

 (rarely of the spruce), with various berries in summer ; the young 

 eat insects, worms &:c. The name Capercaillie is, I believe, derived 

 from the Celtic galmr a goat — with allusion to the elongated chin- 

 feathers of the male and his amorous behaviour in spring — and 

 coille a wood : i.e., 'goat of the wood ' ; but some authorities prefer 

 cabhar an old man, or gobur a horse. 



The adult male has a strong hooked bill ; upper plumage chiefly 

 dark slate-grey, nearly black on the tail ; chest dark glossy-green ; 

 lower parts almost black ; legs covered with hair-like brown feathers, 

 short in summer, but overhanging the toes in winter. There is great 

 variation in size : average length 35 in. ; wing 14-5. The female is 

 much smaller, and the general colour of her upper plumage is brown 

 mottled with buff and white ; the neck and breast are orange-buff, 

 barred with black and spotted with white. 



