THE WOOD GROUSE OR CAPERCAILZIE. 141 



" * Even in his wild state, the capercailzie fre- 

 quently forgets his inherent shyness, and will attack 

 people when approaching his place of resort. Mr 

 Adlerberg mentions such an occurrence. During a 

 number of years, an old capercailzie cock had been 

 in the habit of frequenting the estate of Villinge at 

 Wermdo, who, as often as he heard the voice of 

 people in the adjoining wood, had the boldness to 

 station himself on the ground, and during a continual 

 flapping of his wings, pecked at the legs and feet of 

 those that disturbed his domain. 



" Mr Brehm, also, mentions in his Appendix, 

 page , a capercailzie cock that frequented a wood 

 a mile distant from Renthendorf, in which was a 

 path or roadway. This bird, so soon as it perceived 

 any person approach, would fly towards him, peck 

 at his legs, and rap him with its wings, and was with 

 much difficulty driven away.' 



" At the period of the year of which I am now 

 speaking, I usually shot the capercailzie in company 

 with my Lapland dog, Brunette, (a cocker,) of which 

 I have already made mention. She commonly flush- 

 ed them from the ground, where, for the purpose of 

 feeding upon berries, &c. they are much during the 

 autumnal months. In this case, if they saw only 

 the dog, their flight in general was short, and they 

 soon perched in the trees. Here, as Brunette had 

 the eye of an eagle arid the foot of an antelope, she 

 was not long in following them. Sometimes, how- 



