The Capercaillie at Home.



237



proved the most troublesome of any I have ever had since, as he

refused to touch anything for the first two days ; but, afterwards,

whether owing' to a domestic hen getting in where he was, or finding

himself very hungry, he started to feed all right. He proved, how¬

ever, so wild, that on my getting some young birds, which at once

adapted themselves to their surroundings, I turned him loose in his

beloved pine forest again.


The forest keepers have several times brought the young birds

in to me before they could fly, and then I never had any trouble

with them. Their food at first was hemp and Canary seed, and

when they got bigger, wheat, barley and oats, also any wild berries

or green food, and occasionally the ordinary water melon. They

became quite tame in a very short time, and used to wander about

among the domestic hens. We found, however, that we could not

keep more than one cock, though even if only a few months old,

owing to their continual fighting. They showed no signs of wishing

to fly away, though unpinioned, and seemed quite happy.


In spite of everything I could do, I have never been able to

bring any of my birds through a winter. The cold is intense, any¬

thing from 20-40° below zero, and when turning them out they got

their feet frost bitten and then rapidly collapsed, but exercise of some

sort they must have. In their wild state, in the winter, I have

never seen one of these birds on the ground.


The nest is always very cunningly hidden, as the hen covers

her eggs, and unless you happen to nearly walk on it, it is very difficult

to find as she sits very close. It is generally at the foot of some

tree, a slight hollow being scraped out. I have also found it several

times at the foot of an ant heap, the bottom of the latter being

scraped out, making a sort of tunnel for the bird to sit under.


Owing to these grand birds living only in the big pine forests,

which nearly all belong to the Government and with regular keepers

who prevent indiscriminate shooting, they stand a chance of surviving

a long time. Without this protection and with their slow flight

and big size, they would very soon have become exterminated as the

Siberian peasant has not the least idea of giving any bird a chance.


Kingan, Siberia. March, 1913.



