74 
CAPERCALZIE SHOOTING. 
a crest, his tail expanded, and his wings drooping to his 
feet, uttering his love-call, which resembles Felur^ peluvy 
pelur ! interrupted every now and then with a deep quck ! 
which sounds like a chuckle far down in the throat. It is 
answered, by the hens within hearing, with a cry like the 
croak of a raven, or rather thus : Gock^ gock^ gock ! and 
for some weeks the woods are rife with these unmusical 
sounds ; they then cease ; the female commences preparing 
for her work of incubation ; and the male skulks away, as 
if ashamed of himself, to hide in the leafy covert, and re- 
new his plumage, which soon after begins to look dull and 
ragged. The two sexes consort not again until the next breed- 
ing season ; on the hen devolves all the trouble of hatching 
and rearing the young. Her rude nest is placed on the 
ground, in some secluded situation ; and there, on her eggs, 
from six to twelve in number, of a pale reddish brown, 
spotted over with two shades of deeper colour, she sits her 
appointed twenty-nine days, and leads forth her chicks — 
or poults we should call them, to be sportsmanlike — which 
run as soon as they are hatched, and feed on worms, ants, 
and other insects. The food of the old birds consists 
chiefly of the leaves and tender shoots of the Scotch fir, 
wdth juniper and o'ther berries common in the northern 
forests : in the winter, they eat the buds of the birch, &c. 
Earely or never, it is said, do they touch the spruce-fir. 
Of Capercalzie- shooting the British sportsman knows but 
little yet, although he may be better informed by-and-by, 
when the birds get sufiiciently numerous to allow of their 
being shot in a fair manner. One of the modes by which 
they are taken in Sweden must be characterised as anything 
but fair : we should call it poaching. Having marked the 
places of retirement to roost, the destroyers go by torch- 
light, and shoot the birds at their leisure, as they sit stu- 
pidly staring at the fire blazing beneath them. On account 
of their size, weight, and heavy flight, we should imagine 
that they would be at all times an easy prey ; and as their 
value in the market, being from ten to fifteen shillings, 
renders them a good prize, they will no doubt, unless care- 
ftilly watched and preserved, again become scarce in the 
country, and eventually die out, as they have done before. 
