THE WOOD GROUSE OR CAPERCAILZIE. 137 



could have been in this country. It also seems to 

 extend to several districts of Northern Asia. It is 

 perhaps most abundant in some parts of Russia, Nor- 

 way, and Sweden, and it is from thence that an annua. 

 supply of this and another bird, the Tetrao medius, 

 is furnished to the London markets. In these coun- 

 tries they frequent the deep and far-spreading forests 

 of pine, feeding on the young shoots and cones, the 

 catkins of the birch, and berries of the juniper which 

 form the underwood. They are polygamous, and at 

 the commencement of incubation, the male places 

 himself conspicuously, and attracts the female by 

 his loud cries, " resembling Peller, peller, peller, and 

 various attitudes. On hearing the call of the cock, 

 the hens, whose cry in some degree resembles the 

 croak of the raven, or rather, perhaps, the sounds 

 Gock-gock, gockj assemble from all parts of the sur- 

 rounding forest. The male bird now descends, from 

 the eminence on which he was perched, to the 

 ground, where he and his female friends join com- 

 pany." * When the females really commence incuba- 

 tion, they are forsaken, the males skulking among 

 the brushwood and renewing their plumage, while she 

 attends to the hatching and rearing of her progeny. 

 The male is nearly three feet in length, and gains 

 a weight of sometimes fifteen pounds. The feathers 

 of the head and cheeks are elongated, and during his 

 displays of courtship, the former are raised, and those 

 on the cheeks brought forward. The back of the 

 * From Lloyd*s Northern Field Sports. 



