state of the season. During his play, the neck of the Caper-
cali is stretched out, his tail it raised and—spread like a fan,
his wings droop, his feathérs are ruffled up, and in short, he
much resembles in appearance_.an angry Turkey-cock. He
begins his play with a call something , resembling the word
peller, peller, peller ; these sounds he repeats at first At some
little intervals j -but as he proceeds- they increase in rapidi|||p
until at last, and after perhaps the lapse of a minute or so, lie
makes a sort of gulp in his throat, and. finishes.by drawing in
his breath. During the continuance of this latter ^©nessi,
which only lasts a few seconds, the head the Cap’ereali is^
thrown up, his eyes are partially closed, and his whole appearance
would denote that he is worked'up into an agonymf
passion.”
“ On hearing the call of,the cock, the hens,- whose cry in
some degree resembles the croak' of the Raven, or rather,
perhaps, the sound gock, gockx goclc, assemble from all
parts of the surrounding forest. The male bird' now. descends
from the em in en t on which he Was -pereheduto the
ground, where he and his female friends join company.”. '
“ The Capercali does not play, indiscriminately-over the
-forest, but héyhas his certain stationsV, which may>be: chlied
his playing-grounds, These* however,': are- often .of. some
little'extents Here," Unless very mueh persecuted," the" song
of these birds may be heard in tire- spring for years together!
The Capercali does not during his play confine himself: do
any particular tree, and is jseldom. to be met with exact!v oji
the same spot for two. days in succession. On these playing-
grounds several Capercali may occasionally ,bêr heard playing
at the same time. Old male birds will not permit the .young
ones, or those of the preceding season, to play. Should .the
old birds, however^ be killed, the young ones in the course of
a day or two, usually open their pipes. Combats, as. may be
supposed, not unfrequently take place on these occasions;
though I do not recollect having heard of more than two of
the'se«birdsfdlewphngaged sit the same time.” *
The-Capercali hen mMoes her nest Upon the ground, and
Hays Trdm; sM.-td' thfbb’rare two inches three lines
. by one 'Shh^eighti line's iri breadth, of a pale reddish
-yellow brownf2 s p ^ te t^ lh *with’1 two•fshades of darker
l^ahrg'evMown. It is'Hhid 'four weeks. Her
young khh||puth hfer-'until Inwards lithe* approach of winter;
but the -bilks' separatea®llillth’eifmother before the hens” >
Whenf,:thei¥lM^le^ fealiy commenterincubarioh they are
forsaken ibyIkh'e;iold md!l#s,^hb;^kulk abbAt among the brush-
rweted while ir&eAlhgllfreir plum£gH#bhe ■ female alc®H attending
to the hatching and rearing!ul f hem!pr%'®fpp^
My late^-firiend W. Christy, Jun,%fe'dfee premature death
was- 4^f'dlytfegreVtedV '^ys^rin his journal, kept when'"bn a
trip to" Motway in undjefifthet date: of August '8th, “ I
.wasinfbti a ditm# start-led, whilst gathering a plant near the
fiyerkide’;' by the ^risingp within a yard of me, of a
fih’ehCnek-bf'we Woofis. Shortly afterwards I heard several
sh$|^ and oh?rejoining mytifompanions I found they had sm?rf5
©ended in b rin in g down a female, and several half-grown
young rones. ‘ In* thb'rcourse'of the day^sevhral ‘other young
males were shot, b u t w© were unable to pfoCure one in adult
plumage.” ■ Lirihabusy in his T o u r'in Lapland, says the
Wood-: ‘Cro'U'geH’there are1- cafugM in traps ; the bodies are
dried; and will keep for a year.
Mr. Lloyd' 'observes; that “ excepting there kb e a deep
snow, the Capercali is much upon the ground in the day
time; very’commonly, however, he’sits on the pines, sometimes
on the iihiry ’-uppermost branches. During the. night
he ^generally roosts in ' 'the trees; but if the weather be very
cold, he not unfrequenklpbhties’ himself in the snow. Considering
the large size of the’ bird, his flight is not particularly
heavy or noisy.” Mr. Llbyd has' not only seen this bird at a