THE WOOD GROUSE OR CAPERCAILZIE. 115 
could have been in this country. It also Berms to 
extend to several districts of Northern Asia. It is 
perhaps most abundant in some parts of Russia, Nor- 
way, and Sweden, and it h from thence that an annual 
supply of this and another bird, tbe Tetrao medius, 
is furnished to the Loudon markets. In these coun- 
tries (bey frequent the deep and far-spreading forests 
of pine, feeding on the young shoots and cones, the 
catkins of the birch, and berries of the juniper which 
form the underwood. They are polygamous, and at 
tire commencement of incubation, the male places 
himself conspicuously, and attracts the female by 
his loud cries, “ resembling Pellet', pelter, peller, and 
various attitudes. On hearing the cull of the cock, 
the hens, whose cry in some degree resembles the 
croak of the raven, or rather, perhaps, the sounds 
Gocfc-gock, gock, assemble from all parts of the sur- 
rounding forest. The male bird now descends, from 
the eminence on which he was perched, to the 
ground, where he and his female friends join com- 
pany, ’’ # When the females really commence incuba- 
tion, they are forsaken, tbe males skulking among 
tbe brushwood and renewing their plumage, while she 
attends to the hatching and rearing of her progeny. 
The male is nearly three feet in length, and gains 
a weight of sometimes fifteen pounds. The feathers 
of the head and cheeks are elongated, and during Ins 
displays of courtship, the former are raised, and those 
on the cheeks brought forward. The back of the 
* From Lloyd’s Northern Field Sporta. 
