162 SPORT IN NOEWAY. 



Unlike the black game and capercalzie, hjerper are 

 monogamous. They lay about the middle or end of 

 June from six to eight eggs. Their food consists of 

 the young shoots of spruce fir, seeds, &c. Indeed 

 there appears to be a most intimate connection between 

 their very existence and the appearance of this tree ; 

 it being only in those districts where there are large 



forests of spruce fir that they are found in any quantity. 



i 

 Thus, on the western coast south of Throndhjem, 



they are not to be met with, but in the neighbourhood 

 of that city they are exceedingly plentiful ; and while 

 this latter district abounds in forests of spruce fir the 

 former parts are almost destitute of them. In Nord- 

 land again, at least in its northern parts, they are 

 not known ; and it is a significant fact that the limit 

 of the spruce fir has been placed under lat. 67. But 

 in Osterdalen, Kendalen, Trysil, &c., they are nu- 

 merous; and here there are more extensive forests 

 of spruce fir than in any other parts of Norway. 



The peasants frequently shoot them by enticing 

 them with a call made to imitate their peculiar cry. 

 They go into a part of the forest where they are known 

 to be, and can thus allure them into their neigh- 

 bourhood very readily. By remaining perfectly still 

 these birds will perch on the trees close by. But even 

 then it is often a difficult matter to discover their 

 AN hereabouts ; for they remain perfectly immovable, and 



