410 SPORT IN EUROPE 



tree. This mode of shooting is employed throughout all Russia, 

 as well as in the Ural Mountains and Siberia. Capercailzie do 

 not exist in the Caucasus, 



On similar ground the black game assemble and fight in spring ; 

 the name tok is also employed for this favourite mode of shooting 



them throughout Russia. A small branch hut, or 



Black 



_ skaiash, is put up close to the spot where the birds 



gather at early dawn, and the hunter must conceal 



himself in this hut before they congregate from all parts of the 



wood to their fighting-ground, i.e. at about 12.30 a.m. Great care 



must be taken not to shoot the first bird that comes ; he is generally 



the one that calls the others to assemble, and is known as the 



tokovik. If he be killed, his companions will probably not turn 



up, and the night's sport will be gone. An assemblage of thirty 



birds is considered a good tok, and eight or ten may be easily 



bagged in one morning. In their excitement, blackcock often pay 



no attention to a shot, and continue their joust, though sometimes 



they fly away and return a few minutes later. They begin calling 



earlier in the season than capercailzie, and usually leave off in May. 



In autumn, round St. Petersburg-, driven black o-ame afford fair 



bags, over a hundred having been killed in a day by ten or twelve 



guns. The best ground for this sport is rented by 

 Drives. 



the Grand Duke Nicholas and several shooting clubs, 



the drives including, besides black game, numbers of blue hares, 



pheasants, and partridges, though the last-named do not breed well 



in the too capricious springs of those northern climes. Black game 



exist over almost the whole of Russia and in Siberia. In the 



