82 BREEDING. 



The pairing season ended, the liens separate, and retire 

 to their respective breeding-grounds, which may either 

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

 moorlands. 



The nest of the Grey-lien 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-whitr, thickly sprinkled 

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

 the thicker end, are somewhat larger; in length they 

 are two inches and one-sixteenth, 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, lias 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 not 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 Hackel-Fogel are not of uncommon occurrence. 

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

 Ripa, a species of grouse, as already said. But of tlu-M- 

 hybrids 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 



remain, no regular lek is In-Ill l>v tlirm ; but every eoek *i/>nift-orrr. 

 railed spels for himself, most commonly from the top of a lofty pine, or, it 

 may be, from a naked me k. 1 1. -re the hen- re-ort to him, and when his 

 sjiel is over, he distributes lii.s favours amongst them. 



* Nordhohn tells us the hens, during their lirst year, lay eleven eggs, 

 and that afterwards the number diminishes so that in old MX''- they only 



hiv five. 



