

THE FORESTS AND SPORT OF SIBERIA. 143 



dant than the capercaillie and black -grouse, but it is so noiseless 

 that one may often miss it although there are numerous coveys in the 

 wood. It never forms such large flocks as its relatives, nor does 

 it undertake such long migrations, but it is more uniformly dis- 

 tributed throughout the wide forest- wilderness, and the sportsman 

 who knows its ways gets more readily within shot of it than in the 

 case of any other bird of the woods. During spring and summer it 

 seems to the inexperienced to have wholly disappeared; but in 

 autumn it occurs everywhere, even in those places where, a few 

 months before, it might have been sought for in vain. It is as fond 

 of berries as are its relatives, and to secure these it visits the larger 

 clearings, which, in spring and summer, it seems to avoid. But even 

 there it knows how to escape observation. It lies much more 

 closely than capercaillie or black-cock, and, without anxiously conceal- 

 ing itself on the approach of an intruder, remains as long as possible 

 motionless, only rising when the enemy is almost touching it. 

 Even then its flight is so noiseless and inconspicuous that one may 

 readily fail to hear or see it; even a partridge or a wood-cock makes 

 more noise than this charming bird, of whose flight only a gentle 

 whirring is perceptible. When startled, it usually, though by no 

 means always, flies to the nearest fir-tree and alights on the first 

 convenient branch, but there it sits so quietly that it is once more 

 as inconspicuous as it was on the ground. The sportsman often 

 tries for a long time in vain to discover the bird's whereabouts, and 

 when he has finally decided that it has secretly flown off, he is 

 suddenly nonplussed by a start or movement which betrays its 

 presence on the very branch on which he had looked for it repeatedly. 

 The cleverness with which all birds of this sort hide themselves from 

 observation has reached a rare perfection in the hazel-grouse. For its 

 haunts it prefers the boggy and mossy parts of the forest, which 

 abound in bilberries and cranberries and are surrounded by old 

 dead trees and young growths. Here it knows so skilfully how to 

 use the cover, that one rarely perceives it until it has flown for 

 security to one of the lifeless giants. When it does not move, it 

 appears most deceptively like a knot on the tree, and it behaves as if 

 it knew that it could trust to the colour-resemblance between its 



