THE WOOD-GROUSE. 183 



de-he-de-he , frequently reiterated. But the bird 

 has another cry, during the utterance of which 

 it is useless to attempt getting near him, for he 

 is then alive to the slightest sound, and can de- 

 tect the gentlest movement ; this cry we are told 

 is something like dod, uttered several times, and 

 then do-del, do-del, dodelder, repeated with 

 astonishing rapidity. The organs of sight and 

 hearing, in this species, appear to be perfect in 

 an almost inconceivable degree.* 



The capercaile was once to be met with in the 

 mountainous parts of Ireland, as well as Scotland; 

 but seems now to be nearly, if not quite extinct 

 there. It is found in the vast forests of Ger- 

 many, and is common in Sweden, Norway, and 

 all the north of Russia. During the severe 

 weather of the last winter, a novel scene was one 

 day exhibited in London. A man, seated near 

 the Exchange, had a table before him covered 

 with some hundreds of the beautiful snow-white 

 ptarmigan described in the next article, inter- 

 mingled with some magnificent capercailes : they 

 were dead, and frozen to stony hardness, and in 

 this state had been brought over from Denmark 

 as an adventure. They were speedily sold, and 



* See Griffith's Cuvier, Supplement to the Order Galling. 



