24 CAPERCAILLIE. 



your sport, you must not go out of your hut to collect the birds you have shot. When 

 the hen answers the call, or lows like a cow, she has either got a young one with her, 

 or the calling is incorrect; or else she has been frightened, and will not then quit her 

 place. A young hen answers more readily to the call than an old one.' 



This must be a most destructive system, and would, we should think, almost lead to 

 the annihilation of the game, if carried on to any extent. The following is Mr. Greiff's 

 account of the various devices adopted in Scandinavia for the capture of the Capercaillie, 

 and other birds of similar habits: — 'Most of the forest birds are caught in the autumn 

 by bird-lime, or the usual snares, and also by nets. In all these methods, it is necessary 

 to lead the bird by low rows of brushwood into small pathways; with snares of fine brass- 

 wire suspended over these he is easily caught. One of my own methods, by which I 

 have amused myself, and taken many birds alive, is by a simple knotted square silk 

 net, of thirty inches width in the square, and the meshes so large, that the Capercaillie 

 can easily put his head through ; this is to be hung over the pathway, and fastened 

 slightly to small branches, by weak woollen yarn, just sufficient to support the net in 

 a square form, with some small twigs and leaves of the fir spread over it; round the 

 net a silk line is passed through the extreme meshes, and fastened to a stout bush. 

 When the Capercaillie has got his head into the mesh of the net, and finds that some- 

 thing opposes him, he always runs directly forward, when the silk line is drawn close, 

 and the bird lies as if in a reticule, with his wings pressed to his body, unable to 

 move himself, or to tear the net, however weak it may be, although it should always 

 be made of twisted silk. In the autumn, when the cranberry is plentiful in the forest, 

 by strewing these berries on each side of the net, you entice the birds to advance eagerly. 

 This sport produces much amusement. One night, when a sufficiency of snow fell to 

 enable me to trace them, three Wolves passed within ten paces of a Capercaillie, who 

 had been caught in the net the night before; still the Wolves never injured the bird.' " 



Other methods are also mentioned by Mr. Lloyd, by which a great destruction of the 

 Capercaillie is effected. "In other instances, the Capercaillie is shot in the night-time 

 by torch-light. This plan, Avhich is said to be very destructive, is, I believe, confined 

 to the southern provinces of Sweden, for in the more northern parts of that country I 

 never heard of its being adopted. In Smaland and Ostergothland, this is said to be 

 effected in the following manner: — -Towards night-fall people watch the last flight of the 

 Capercaillie before they go to roost. The direction they have taken into the forest is 

 then carefully marked, by means of a prostrate tree, or by one which is felled especially 

 for the purpose. After dark, two men start in pursuit of the birds; one of them is 

 provided with a gun, the other with a long pole, to either end of which a flambeau is 

 attached. The man with the flambeau goes in advance, the other remaining at the prostrate 

 tree, to keep it and the two lights in an exact line with each other; by this curious 



