AUSTRIA 27 



be seen from the foregoing, not quite so easy as it may seem, and 

 for anyone tempted to undertake it without the guidance of a keeper 

 some faikires to start with will assuredly prove it so. But, once he 

 has mastered the science, the sportsman will probably call it one of 

 the most exciting sports obtainable in Europe. One (rarely two) 

 blackcock or capercailzie will be the morning's bag, and for them 

 it is necessary to work hard and rough it to an extent that makes 

 success very sweet. 



Some 5,000 capercailzie and more than 9,000 blackcocks are shot 

 annually in Austria in this manner, the venerable Emperor being still 

 a keen lover of this sport, a journey of many hours by rail from 

 his capital, followed by a long tramp to his simply-constructed 

 Jagdhiitte, lost in the solitude of some favourite forest, being the 

 preliminaries of this nocturnal sport. Blackcock frequent higher 

 regions than does the larger capercailzie, and in some parts of 

 Tyrol and Styria the pursuit of the former entails real hardship if 

 bad weather — sleet and snow^ and cutting winds — increase the diffi- 

 culties incidental to this sport. But to the lover of the Hahnbalz 

 they lend additional zest, and he is oblivious to the ludicrous 

 features of leaving his bed three or four hours before dawn, 

 scrambling up a steep mountain-side by the light of a tiny lantern, 

 sitting for an hour underneath a dripping tree, his whole body 

 first aglow with the exertion, then a-tremble with cold, listening 

 to the guttural "clucks" of an invisible fowl perched on one of 

 the countless trees that surround him on every side, while he 

 anxiously awaits the first signs of daylight, by which he finally 

 hopes to bring down the love-lorn bird. 



