A peculiar feature of the bull elk is the curious hairy appendage hanging from the throat, known to hunters as the “bell.”
Elk are polygamous, like the majority of the deer tribe; and in the breeding season the two sexes learn each others’ whereabouts by means of a loud “call” or bellowing, which in some districts, at any rate, appears to be uttered by males and females alike. The call can easily be imitated with the aid of a horn or trumpet, and by this means many a fine old bull is lured to his destruction. Elk are adepts in concealing themselves in the thickets to which they resort during the daytime.
In winter, when they are compelled to subsist on bark and twigs, especially those of the birch, these giant deer experience very hard times; and in North America a bull and two or three cows often form what is called a “yard” in the forest, by constantly trampling down the snow over a certain area, and thus keeping themselves from being snowed up. The female gives birth to one or two calves at a time, which are even more ungainly-looking than their parents.
It should be added, that in America the term “elk” is misapplied to the wapiti, while in Ceylon it is bestowed on the sambar deer.
THE CAPERCAILLIE
(Tetrao urogallus)
FOR the greater part of the year capercaillie, the largest representative of the grouse family, passes its time concealed in the depths of the forests, where it manages to find sufficient food even in the most severe winters; and it is only for a short period in spring that it makes its appearance, during the breeding-season, in the open. Its home is in the great forests of continental Europe and northern Asia, more especially those in which fir and pines predominate; abundant under-wood, which affords a good supply of berries, open glades, patches of sand, and pure water are, however, essential to the well-being of this magnificent bird. The capercaillie, or auerhahn as it is called in Austria and Germany, ranged in former days from the British Islands to the north-eastern portion of Turkestan, the Altai Mountains, and Lake Baikal; but by the middle of the seventeenth century it had already become scarce in Britain, where it became extinct a century later. In recent years the bird has, however, been reintroduced into Perthshire, Forfarshire, and a few other Scottish counties. In the Urals, north-eastern Siberia, and Kamchatka the typical capercaillie is represented by nearly allied species, or races. In Scandinavia the auerhahn ranges as far north as latitude 70°, but gradually becomes smaller and scarcer as the pine-woods tend to disappear; and it is the vast pine-forests of central Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Poland that form the great centre of its habitat.
Although its large size constitutes a sufficient means of recognising the cock capercaillie, which measures as much as thirty-five inches in length, from all other kinds of grouse, the species is distinguishable from its near relative, the blackcock, by the evenly rounded tail; while the blackish head and neck, with a patch of bare vermilion skin above each eye, the pale horn-colour of the beak, the green band across the breast, and the slaty brown back form other unmistakable characteristics. The female presents somewhat more resemblance to an overgrown greyhen (the female of the blackcock), but here again the rounded tail and superior size constitute decisive points of difference; while the general colour is more distinctly chestnut. Additional peculiarities of the hen capercaillie are to be found in the presence of a rufous patch at the base of the neck, and in the white tips to the black greater wing-coverts. In length the hen measures about 10 inches less than her partner; while her weight is only from 5 to 6 lb., against from 13 to 16 or 17 lb. in the cock.
