162 SPORT IN NORWAY. 
Unlike the black game and capercalzie, hjerper are 
monogamous. They lay about the middle or end of 
June from six to eight eggs. Their food consists of 
the young shoots of spruce fir, seeds, &. Indeed 
there appears to be a most intimate connection between 
their very existence and the appearance of this tree; 
it being only in those districts where there are large 
forests of spruce fir that they are found in any quantity. 
Thus, on the western coast south of Throndhjem, 
they are not to be met with, but in the neighbourhood 
of that city they are exceedingly plentiful; and while 
this latter district abounds in forests of spruce fir the 
former parts are almost destitute of them. In Nord- 
land again, at least in its northern parts, they are 
not known; and it is a significant fact that the limit 
of the spruce fir has been placed under lat. 67°. But 
in Osterdalen, Rendalen, Trysil, &c., they are nu- 
merous; and here there are more extensive forests 
of spruce fir than in any other parts of Norway. 
The peasants frequently shoot them by enticing 
them with a call made to imitate their peculiar cry. 
They go into a part of the forest where they are known 
to be, and can thus allure them into their neigh- 
bourhood very readily. By remaining perfectly still 
these birds will perch on the trees close by. But even 
then it is often a difficult matter to discover their 
whereabouts ; for they remain perfectly immovable, and 
