THE CAPERCAILLIE. 35 



it is composed of grasses and leaves, and is usually placed 

 amongst heather or long grass, and often under the 

 sheltering cover of a bush or bramble. 



The number of eggs varies from six to ten or twelve ; the 

 colour is a pale reddish-brown, spotted all over with two 

 shades of orange brown. The male birds do not assist in 

 incubation, and are said to desert the hens entirely as soon 

 as the young ones are hatched. 



The flight of the Capercaillie is strong, and more rapid 

 and easily sustained than one would imagine from the size 

 of the bird ; during flight the wings are flapped very 

 rapidly. In walking, the body is carried horizontally, the 

 head stretched forwards, and the tail drooped. The bird 

 runs very quickly. The Capercaillie is, generally speaking, 

 shy and unsociable, especially the males. During winter 

 the birds congregate in flocks, which are said occasionally 

 to number fifty, and even a hundred birds. It is somewhat 

 a difficult matter to induce them to take wing, as when 

 alarmed they usually run off and secrete themselves in the 

 brushwood or some similar cover. 



The adult male measures about three feet four inches; 

 the beak whitish horn colour; the irides hazel ; over the eye 

 a half-moon-shaped patch of naked skin, which is bright 

 scarlet in summer ; the plumage of the head, neck, back, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts minutely freckled with 

 greyish-white on a brownish-black ground ; feathers of the 

 crown and throat rather elongated ; wing-coverts and wings 

 freckled with light brown on a darker shade ; quill feathers 

 dark chesnut-brown ; tail feathers nearly black, with, a few 

 spots of greyish-white ; the chest a fine shining dark green; 

 breast black, with a few white spots ; flanks and under tail- 

 coverts greyish -black, spotted with white ; under wing- 



