THE BRAKE FERN 



the capercailzie in the great pine wood suits the 

 scene. 



It is good to flush this bird from the ground or 

 fir tree and watch its bulky form in strong flight. 

 A capercailzie flushed at the edge of a broad path 

 through the pine wood will sometimes fly straight 

 along the path and settle again in a tree at its edge ; 

 and will repeat this if followed and flushed a second 

 even a third time. Both capercailzie I flushed 

 were hens ; two black grouse which kept each other 

 company in a grassy open spot among the woods 

 were young cocks, for in the autumn there is a 

 division of sexes with these birds ; the males leave 

 the females and form a flock of themselves. 



What is the meaning of this separation no one 

 can tell. Surely the separation cannot make society 

 more agreeable to the black grouse or the life of 

 individual or flock more secure. With most English 

 birds the sexes are mingled during the flocking 

 season ; it is so with starlings, linnets, skylarks. 

 But with migratory chaffinches there is an excep- 

 tion. Some of the flocks of chaffinches seen in 

 England during the autumn and winter are made 

 up of hens though some young cock chaffinches, 

 which have not yet put on their full plumage, may 

 be included. To this separation of sexes the chaf- 

 finch owes that Latin name which old Linnaeus 

 neatly gave it coelebs, the bachelor. It might 

 have been given as appropriately to the nightingale ; 

 for male nightingales, also travelling in sexes, reach 

 us, it is said, earlier than the females. The thought 



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