116 EEMIXISCEXCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



they grow older; they are of a white colour spotted 

 with yellow, bigger than those of the common hen, and 

 are esteemed greater delicacies than the eggs of most 

 birds. These are deposited upon moss in some dry 

 spot upon the ground, where she can sit in security, 

 the female alone sitting the whole time of incubation, and 

 when obliged to leave her nest covering the eggs 

 cautiously with leaves. She sits so close that, after 

 being approached, she can hardly be induced to quit 

 her eggs. The young run after their mother as soon as 

 hatched, the mother leading them most carefully into 

 the woods, where she feeds them with ant eggs, small 

 insects, blackberries, &c. As they grow older they feed 

 upon the tops of heather and the pine cones, and being 

 a hardy bird, and usually finding abundance of food, 

 they soon come to their full strength and vigour. They 

 continue imited, more particularly the young males, 

 until the end of the year, when the season of love 

 inspiring them with new inclinations and appetites 

 the family disperses. 



In the countries where they abound, if taken young, 

 they may be easily tamed, and thrive well on corn ; and 

 the males, when in this domestic state, emit the same 

 amorous note all the year round, which, when wild, they 

 only use in the season of love. 



The Goshawk is their most formidable enemy ; they 

 succumb to its attack, although they are much larger 

 birds. 



When I resided in Grermany I was never so fortunate 

 as to -get a shot at the cock of the wood; but on one 

 occasion, when walking through a forest in the Duchy 

 of Brunswick with some Germans, they pointed out to 

 me one that was perched on the branch of a pine-tree, 



