COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 
275 
the chosen tree, which is generally a larch or fir, as the 
slippery hark of the beech tree is not so well adapted for 
dancing on as the former. Immediately after shaking his 
feathers, which operation is accompanied with no little 
noise, the bird remains silent, listening with the greatest 
attention to hear if all is quiet in the forest; if the 
contrary is the case it immediately flies down again. 
After an interval of some minutes, during which time the 
Capercallie has remained perfectly motionless, one may 
remark a repeated movement in the throat, as though 
the bird wanted to throw something up, or was near 
choking; with this a curious sound is heard, which the 
hunter calls “ retching” or “ cramming,” * and which 
Bechstein compares to the grunting of a pig. The 
sportsman always considers this as an unfailing sign 
that the bird will “ play” the next morning. 
Long before sunrise, generally about three in the 
morning, the “playing” commences by the bird emitting 
a snapping or smacking sound, “from which time,” 
says my good friend Geyer, in his capital little brochure 
on ‘The “play” of the Capercallie,’ “the interest and 
attention of the hunter rises until he hears the first real 
note, which is veritable music to many, and quickens the 
pulse of every lover of the sport. It resembles the 
syllable, ‘ tend ;’ then follows, ‘tend, teud, tend, teud;’ 
and at last, ‘teud, eud, eud, eud, eud,’ &c., increasing in 
rapidity until the principal note is reached, which is not 
unlike ‘ glak; ’ this is louder than all the preceding. 
Then the ‘grinding,’ ‘whetting,’ and ‘playing,’ begins, 
which is also called ‘ stanza- or verse-making,’ f a sound 
* “ Worgen” or “ Kriipfen; ” terms used b}' the hunter to express this particular 
sound.— W. J. 
+ German : “ Schleifen,” “ Wetzen,” “ Einspielen.”— W. J. 
