RED DEER HUNTING IN GALICIAN FORESTS 
their usual attendants, the nuthatch and the tree-creeper. Once or twice 
on the edge of cultivation I observed a black redstart hawking flies about 
the wood piles and darting away into crevices at our approach, its bril- 
liant scarlet tail flashing against the shadows. One day at Wononienka I 
noticed a most interesting migration of lesser kestrels. The little falcons 
were passing south in small parties of ten to twenty in number, all keeping 
the same line and the same distance apart. They continued to pass for 
four hours, when some hundreds must have gone by. It was the first 
time I had seen this beautiful little raptorial, and it surprised me to 
see that they moved in flocks. Almost every day I noticed parties of jays 
whilst down in the valleys, Hooded crows were abundant. Every morning 
and evening, too, one heard the clear whistling cry of, and occasionally 
saw, the little spruce grouse. They responded freely to the same call, 
admirably imitated by the Galician hunters, who kill large numbers 
for the Prince’s table. I have no hesitation in saying that the Carpathian 
spruce grouse is the best bird to eat in the world, not even excepting our 
own native species. It is always tender, and has a delicious forest flavour 
that is difficult to surpass. One soon tires of woodcock, snipe and golden 
plover, all excellent birds in their way, but their excellence is much over- 
rated. There is no foreign species of game bird, with the exception of the 
great bustard, that I would sooner see introduced into British pine forests. 
It will thrive in the same ground as capercailzie, is perfectly harmless to 
timber, quite hardy in the severest weather, and could fill a gap in many 
places where game birds do not exist at all. 
But the birds par excellence of the Carpathian forests are the wood- 
peckers. Three species are constantly in evidence, namely, the interme- 
diate form of the great spotted, the hairy, and the great black woodpecker. 
All day long you heard them busy tapping from early morn till eve. Being 
very tame they are more easily studied than our woodpeckers at home. 
The great black woodpecker is very numerous, and is without doubt one 
of the finest of European birds. When flying it has a most peculiar note, 
somewhat resembling the noise emitted by a brake being applied to a 
luggage train, in fact, a series of raucous screeches. On alighting on a tree 
it remains still for a moment and utters a long-drawn plaintive cry several 
times. Then it gets to work in a hustling, businesslike fashion and makes 
the rotten wood fly in all directions. I have observed both this species and 
the hairy woodpecker descending a tree backwards for several yards. 
When doing so they assume a peculiar position. The tail is spread and held 
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