AUSTRIA 



25 



that the majority of Scotch stacrs are killed at the expenditure of 



very considerably less trouble and fatigue than have to be faced 



by the man who wants to succeed in stalking- the wily 



blackcock or capercailzie in the mountainous regions Blackcock 



and 

 of Austria. I use the word "stalking" as the only Caoercailzie 



one that fitly describes this sport, which briefly consists 



in approaching the cock-bird in the dawn of morning as he sits 



*on one of the top branches of a pine or fir tree singing his very 



peculiar love ditty. The tree is high up on the mountain -side, 



probably* close to timber-line, and as the bird becomes mute half an 



hour or so before the sun rises, and is gifted with the keenest sense 



of hearing, the sportsman has to leave his bed soon after midnight, 



and, after a two or three hours' climb up steep slopes in the dark, 



often through deep snow, must reach the vicinity of the tree selected 



by the cock as a mating place before the first signs of dawn are 



tinoinor the horizon. As soon as it is lioht enouoh to see the end 



of the gun-barrel, the fun of the stalk commences. 



Both the birds whose habits I am describing, mate in the early 



part of spring ; in sub-alpine regions in the last week of March and 



first half of April, in higher regions up to the middle of May. The 



males of both exhibit during this period a bellicose chivalry and 



amorous excitement, which gives the stalker the chance to approach 



them (hens are never shot) even in the densest woods, for they not 



only betray their whereabouts by their singular love ''triller," but 



exhibit, during a second or two when the paroxysm of excitement 



evoked by their " song " is at the highest, absolute deafness and 



partial blindness. Thus, during one particular note, a shot can be 



