io The Natural History of British Game Birds 
friend of mine who was sent out at Murthly to shoot some woodcock, on August ist, came 
across a brood of Capercaillie. Never having seen such birds before, he killed the old 
hen and two of the young ones. I examined the crops of these, and found them full 
of raspberries and the larvae of certain beetles, whose identity I did not at the time 
determine. 
During midwinter the species seems to be more gregarious than at any other 
season. In beating woods at this season I have noticed that most of the birds are 
found within a small area, which seems to prove that after feeding together they do 
not wander far apart. In early autumn single cocks may often be surprised lying in 
some fern bank or deep heather, and startle the intruder by their loud flapping and 
sudden appearance. After very heavy rain, too, in early autumn, I have seen cock 
Capercaillie almost unable to rise from the ground, owing to their soaked plumage and 
weak primaries. 
At the beginning of April the male Capercaillie resorts to some favourite tree, 
generally an old broken Scotch fir, and indulges in his display, or " spel," as it is 
called on the Continent. If undisturbed, the males will come year after year to the 
same tree to display their attractions before the admiring females. The cock-bird 
generally flies to his "show" place just as dawn is breaking, and at once begins to 
show off. The call is described by Howard Saunders, and copied by nearly every 
recent writer, as " peller, peller, peller," but the author, usually so careful, is much at 
fault, and one wonders where he obtained his onomatopoeic description ; for it is not the 
least like the cry. When in the act of the display the male stretches out the neck, 
spreads the tail, and lowers the wings, and utters a note something like the words 
" klick-kleck," repeated with intervals. It then turns the head upwards and backwards, 
uttering a variety of extraordinary noises or squalls, more like two cats fighting at a 
distance than anything else. During the performance of the culmination of his display, 
the bird seems to be thrown into a kind of ecstasy of excitement, and to be quite 
oblivious to all sounds or movements in its immediate neighbourhood. Soon after 
dawn the hens arrive, and run about in some excitement on the open sward near the 
foot of the " spel " tree. 
I have been told by James Keay and James Boath, men who had spent their lives 
amongst Capercaillie, that the male at this season utters a hoarse croaking note to 
attract the females, but I have not heard it. Neither have I seen the males fight seriously, 
though I have seen an old cock drive off two evidently younger birds from a grassy 
wood-edge at Rohallion, regularly used as a "lek." The late James Keay has, however, 
seen regular battles between them. He has seen two pairs fighting at once, and then 
after skirmishing, striking, and tearing at each other with their bills, has witnessed the 
contest develop into a general melde of utter savagery devoid of skill. A male would 
catch hold of the neck of another and drag it about, shaking with fury. On both the 
occasions on which the keeper saw the contest to a finish, all the combatants were 
exhausted and incapable of further mischief. Moreover he caught one of the cocks, 
which was blinded with the blood pouring from its comb over the eyes. Keay and 
Boath have found males dead in spring as a result of these fierce battles ; whilst 
Macintosh, the Duke of Athole's keeper at Dunkeld, has told me that he picks up two 
