28 THE GROUSE SUBFAMILY 



purpose of these pages will best be served if this be told dis- 

 passionately. 



To begin with, then, while the capercaillie and the black-grouse 

 are polygamous, the red-grouse and the ptarmigan are monogamous. 

 Hence what we may call the initial stages in the matter of the repro- 

 duction of the species find more or less strongly contrasted modes of 

 expression. 



The courtship of the capercaillie is sufficiently remarkable, and 

 has attracted the attention of most ornithologists, though these, for 

 the most part, have had to acquire their facts at second hand. Of 

 our countrymen perhaps Mr. J. G. Millais, and of Continental 

 naturalists Prince Fiirsterberg, have seen more than most of this 

 phase of the capercaillie's life, and accordingly I give, in a condensed 

 form, their account of what happens at this time. Briefly, at about 

 the beginning of April the cock, just before dawn, repairs to some 

 favourite tree used year after year and there performs a most 

 wonderful, if unmusical, serenade. With outstretched neck, drooping 

 wings, and spreading tail he gives voice to a weird, uncouth kind of 

 song, described by Prince Fiirsterberg as divisible into three parts 

 (1) klick-kleck (pause) klick-kleck (pause) Mick-Meek. At the commence- 

 ment these notes sound like two little sticks knocked together at in- 

 tervals of ten or fifteen seconds, getting quicker and quicker till at last 

 they become bell-like. Then follows part number two, which is likened 

 to drawing the cork out of a bottle. The final phase is like the twitter- 

 ing of a bird or the grinding of a knife sch-scht-ssts-pss-sch-scht. But 

 this description conveys no conception of the intensity of feeling 

 which is always displayed during this time. The "song" gradually 

 becomes so fervent, so full of passion, as to deaden the singer to all 

 consciousness of the outer world, and, as a consequence, some " sports- 

 men" contrive to find a keen enjoyment in stealing up to the bird 

 and shooting it even as it sings ! Mr. Millais' description of the song 

 is less detailed, arid conveys a somewhat different impression. He 

 likens it to a " variety of noises, or squalls, like two cats fighting at a 



