82 BREEDING. 



The pairing season ended, the hens separate, and retire 

 to their respective breeding-grounds, which may either 

 be in tlie more open part of the forest, or ou far distant 

 moorlands. 



The nest of the Grey-Hen is a very simple affair, being 

 a mere hole she herself scratches in the ground under a 

 bush or tussock. Her eggs are from six to twelve in 

 number,* in colour yellowish-white, thickly sprinkled 

 with small rust-red spots and blotches, whicli, towards 

 the thicker end, are somewhat larger ; in length they 

 are tAVO inches and one-sixteeuth, and in thickness one 

 inch and one-sixteenth. The period of incubation, accord- 

 ing to some, is three weeks ; but others say a month. It 

 is said that if the old bird, whilst sitting, has occasion to 

 leave the nest, she covers the eggs over with moss. 



"Fourteen days after the chicks are hatched," so we 

 are told by Ekstrom, " they leave the nest and follow their 

 mother; but it is uot until they are seven weeks old 

 that they begin to fly up into the trees and to perch on 

 the branches." 



Hybrids between the Black-Cock and the Capercali — 

 called Rackel-Fogel — are not of uncommon occurrence. 

 The Black-Cock has also been known to pair with tlie 

 Ilipa, a species of grouse, as already said. But of these 

 liybrids more hereafter. 



It is even on record that the Black-Cock has occa- 

 sionally formed still stranger alliances. We are told, 

 for instance, that M. Skogberg, having purchased one of 



lemain, no regular lek is held by tliem ; but every cock — S'qticdi-orre 

 called — spels for liimself, most commonly from the top of a lofty piue, or, it 

 may be, from a naked rock. Here the hens resort to him, and when his 

 spel is over, he distributes his favours amongst them. 



" Nordholm tells us the hens, during their first year, lay eleven eggs, 

 and that afterwards the number diminishes, so that in old age they only 

 lav five. 



