THE CAPERCAILE. 139 



In order to learn where the bird is to be found at 

 morning, it is necessary to be out in the wood before 

 night-fall, that the exact spot may be known where he 

 has perched to roost. The tree he has chosen on one 

 evening he will resort to again on succeeding nights ; 

 and during the pairing time it is almost always on the 

 very top of some tall pine, though not unusually also on 

 a side bough, that he takes up his quarters for the night. 

 At this season if there is anything going on in the w^ood 

 greatly to disturb the quiet of the spot when the birds 

 assemble, they will leave it entirely for some other fitting 

 place, and the least intrusion is sufficient to make the 

 cock bird change his roosting place from one tree to 

 another. No noise, therefore, is to be made when near- 

 ing your look out ; and when once reached you must 

 keep still and quite concealed from view. 



It is getting late. The whole region is gradually 

 becoming more still : the very murmur of the forest is 

 hushed, and nature seems dropping into a tranquil sleep. 

 On the rising ground where you are, the sound of a 

 distant village clock, as it slowly strikes the hour, will 

 reach your ear ; and presently the Ave Maria is rung 

 from the belfry tower. A rook or two straggling home- 

 ward will utter a harsh caw as they fly over your head, 

 and the sound jars, and you feel how deep is the repose 

 around, how placid and how calm. Now and then there 

 is a rustle, as some bird creeps closer in among the dark 



