102 GAME BIRDS. 



withered stalks and leaves of the high, coarse herbage, in the midst 

 of which it is placed. It is by no means a plentiful species, and 

 is daily becoming more scarce. Its principal food is small fish, 

 frogs, insects, and lizards, all of which have been found, by dis- 

 section. 



The LITTLE BITTERN is not much larger than a thrush ; it 

 resembles the great bittern in form and colour, and is very rarely 

 met with in Great Britain, but has, however, been lately killed 

 near Shrewsbury, and recently at Sandymount, march, County 

 Dublin, by Edward W. Winder, Esq. 



THE CAPERCALZIE, 

 WOOD GROUSE, OR COCK OF THE WOOD, 



Is the first of this genus, in order and in consequence, and the 

 noblest of the British feathered game ; and its size, strength, and 

 beauty, have proved its destruction. In ancient times they were 

 tolerably abundant in the primeval forests of Ireland and Scotland ; 

 from the former they have been extirpated at an early period. 

 Their destruction in Scotland has been more gradual, and, the 

 supposed last, traced down to a late period, in the neighbourhood 

 of Inverness. It is hoped, however, that the Species will be again 

 restored to the Scottish forests. The male bird is sometimes found 

 of the size of the turkey, weighing near fourteen pounds ; they 

 are seldom seen, but in the darkest and inmost recesses of the 

 woods and heathy mountains, or piney forests, feeding on the 

 cones of the pine tree, and will sometimes entirely strip one tree 

 before they offer to touch those of another. In summer they ven- 

 ture down from their retreats, to make short depredations on 

 the farmers' corn, but are not easily surprised out of their native 

 haunts. 



The cock of the wood, when in the forest, attaches himself 

 principally to the oak and the pine trees the cones of the latter 

 serving for his food, and the thick boughs for a habitation. He 

 feeds, also, upon ants' eggs, which seem a delicacy to all birds of 

 the poultry kind; cranberries are likewise found in their crop, 

 and his gizzard, like that of domestic fowl, contains a quantity of 

 gravel, for the purpose of assisting his powers of digestion. 



At the early return of spring, this bird begins to feel the genial 

 influence of the season. During the month of March, the ap- 



