270 



WOOD GROUS. 



ing, extremely active, upon one of the largest 

 branches of the pines : with his tail raised and 

 expanded like a fan, and the wings drooping, he 

 walks backward and forward, his neck stretched 

 out, his head swollen, and eyebrows deep crim- 

 son, he utters his singular cry ; which commences 

 by a kind of explosion, instantly followed by a 

 noise resembling the whetting of a scythe, which 

 ceases and commences alternately for about an 

 hour, and is then terminated by a similar ex- 

 plosive noise as at the beginning : during the whole 

 of this singular cry he seems entirely deaf, and 

 insensible of every danger, from the great con- 

 vulsive motion into which his head and eyes are 

 thrown : this enables the sportsman to approach 

 by degrees to the bird, and take a fatal aim. The 

 female seldom lays more than a dozen eggs, which 

 are the size of those of a hen, but more obtuse ; 

 they are yellowish white, sprinkled with irregular 

 yellow spots : they are generally placed in a dry 

 situation, in an artless nest upon the ground, com- 

 posed of heath tops : the young as soon as hatched 

 run with extreme agility after the mother, who 

 leads them to procure the pupae of ants and wild 

 mountain berries, which are their first food ; as 

 they grow older they feed upon the tops of the 

 heath and the seeds of the fir. The whole brood 

 follows the mother for about two months, at which 

 time the young males entirely forsake her, and 

 keep in great harmony with each other till the 

 commencement of spring, when they separate and 

 live in a solitary state, never approaching each 

 other unless for the purpose of fighting, which 



