7 o THE BIRDS OF THE WOODS 



and the island of Solovetski in the White Sea. They are rare in Italy and 

 western Europe, Prussia, and Pomerania, and are absent altogether from the 

 Caucasus, the south of Russia, Denmark, Holland, England, and Ireland. In 

 Scotland they have been acclimatised, after they had died out, by putting eggs 

 under greyhens, thereby giving the young ones good mothers. According to 

 some authors there are several species instead of one. Europe with Siberia, the 

 southern Ural, south-eastern Siberia, eastern Siberia, Kamchatka, the isle of 

 Saghalien, and central Asia are said to have each its own peculiar species — 

 seven in all. Most naturalists, however, do not recognise more than two species, 

 the common T. urogallus, and T. par~virostris of north-eastern Siberia; each of 

 these having two local races. 



The black grouse, otherwise black-game (Lyrurus tetrix), of which 

 the male is blackcock and the female greyhen, is the largest European 

 relative of the capercaillie, but its haunts are different. Woods of all kinds, amid 

 meadows and fields, and open spaces dotted with trees and bushes growing at 

 random, and plenty of underwood, together with rippling brooks, moors, and sandy 

 stretches with solitary trees, and the apparently indispensable heather, form the 

 favourite haunts of the blackcock. In Germany the species is called the birch- 

 cock, on account of its preferring the birch to all other trees. The slightest dis- 

 turbance will cause this shy bird to shift its quarters, as will likewise bad weather, 

 which makes it move lower down the mountains, and in winter drives it to the 

 sunny side of the valleys. It will often exchange the leafy woods, which at other 

 times it prefers on account of the buds, for the pine-forests, as they afford it 

 warmer and safer hiding-places. 



The pairing-season of the blackcock depends on the climate, but generally 

 begins in the middle of March and lasts till the middle or end of May. Unlike the 

 capercaillie, the cock calls almost exclusively on the ground, and much more 

 frequently and at different times of the day. Blackbirds and ring-ousels generally 

 announce his arrival at the early dawn. First of all the cock stretches its 

 head forward to see that all is safe, then extending its body, and giving a violent 

 jerk, hisses a challenge to any rival that may happen to be near, and follows on 

 with the wonderful crow that makes every feather of the plumage quiver. As the 

 bird trills this forth, its thin-skinned throat is distended as if it were a soap-bubble 

 lighted up by the sun. Many gestures accompany the vocal effort. The bird 

 rises and spreads his tail, his drooping wings beat the ground, his neck-feathers 

 stand up, he stoops and rises, dances, flutters, jumps, and bows continually. Unlike 

 the capercaillie, he is not, however, deaf; nor do his duels with his rivals ever 

 terminate fatally. His crow is answered by a soft, nasal daJcdak from the hen, 

 which, when uttered in a short, sharp way, becomes a warning call. At the end 

 of April or the beginning of May the hen lays her six or ten eggs, sometimes 

 more ; and, like the ptarmigan, deposits them on the ground in what can hardly be 

 called a nest. In colour the eggs are a little darker than those of the capercaillie, 

 and they are also smaller. 



The blackcock is a livelier and more audacious bird than its larger relative, 

 but in all other respects the two are much alike. Blackcock have good hearing 



