CA PERCAILZIE SHOOTING IN GERMANY.

THE mention of this splendid bird, better known with us as the cockof-the-wood, is something like that of Robin Hood, or Little John: when Britain was half covered wfth forests, they both found a place of shelter and flourished-the march of civilization stole upon their solitudes, and both disappeared from the scene. The gallant outlaws, for popular tradition loves them still, refused to be cooped in cities with their fellow men; and the shy and noble bird, "jealous as the eagle of her high aerie," vanished from the upland pine-wood, when it no longer seemed to be his own.

Having arrived too late into the world to see his "jetty wing" expanded to the English air, I had long entertained the wish of seeing it in other lands; and two years ago, in Germany, an opportunity presented itself. Being invited to join a party, who had obtained permission for two days' shooting in the mountain forests (for that is their proper name), on the frontiers of the Baden and Wurtemberg States, I did not hesitate, although it was not concealed from me that we were more likely to have some rough work than much sport. I merely asked if we could depend upon finding any of the capercailzie? and being answered in the affimative, made no more inquiries.

The first hint I received was in the kind of shot to be used; 1 had bought some upon my own judgment, about equal to number three English (the German numbers are nearly the same, but not quite), but upon showing it to a friend, au fait at the service before us, he told me it would never do, and showed me his own, which was no number at all, but what we should call swan-shot in England. Having learned the utility of bowing to practical experience in most things, I took his advice, and provided myself accordingly, although it was much heavier metal than I had ever used before. English powder, at all times much superior to foreign, was more than ever requisite at present, but with this I was provided.

All being prepared, we arrived over night at the village of Erlenbad, on the road from Baden Baden to Strasburg, in order to be in time to start for the mountains at day break the next morning. The season was far advanced, it being the last week in October, or the beginning of November (I cannot be quite particular in dates), which made our chances of success very doubtful; not from the birds being already shot off the ground, for of that there was no danger, but from the difference of the ground, on which we were likely to find them. About the end of August, and during September, when the packs (as they are a species of grouse I suppose that is the correct term) are younger, not only do they lie closer, but the difference of the ground they occupy

is of still greater importance. are to be found among the high heather, or short mountain coppices but, as it advances, they ascend to higher lands, and what renders them more difficult of approach, is the fact that they are then generally perched near the tops of the pine trees, with which those regions abound. There they sit, and with a quickness of eye and ear not to be surpassed, perhaps by the wildest of the falcon tribe. As some set-off, however, against this change for the worse, we had the probability of falling in with a portion of the autumnal flight of woodcocks, which commonly arrive here two or three weeks before they descend into the plains below. As the first heavy fall of snow had not yet fallen, we were going to the right place to find them.

In the earlier part of the season they

Thus, having two strings to our bow, we were up with the daylight, -I cannot say with the lark, for I fear the morning would not have tempted him to rise. The first appearances were most unpromising, the fog being so dense that it was impossible to see above twenty yards before us; in fact, nothing but the smell of smoke was wanting to make it exactly like a November London fog. However our attendants, accustomed to the country, assured us that it was merely confined to the vale, and that we should find the uplands quite clear; and so mounting upon some very indifferent nags, that had been collected for us, we began our route. Their words proved true; as we ascended the fog gradually became less, until at last we saw the sun breaking through it with extraordinary effect; and had we come, like Doctor Syntax, merely on a tour of the picturesque, we should have been amply repaid for our trouble. No vestige of the extensive valley we had left was to be seen, but in its place a huge mass of clouds, more like the exaggerated accounts which certain old writers have given us of the tempest-tossed ocean, than any thing else. It was the most singular instance of the decided valley fog that I had ever seen; for, by the time we had reached the considerable elevation where our day's shooting was to begin, there was not a single cloud, or even a floating mist-wreath, above us.

At the appointed rendezvous we met the Chasseur, who was to be our conducteur, and we were not sorry to dismount from our miserable cattle, after a tedious up-hill ride of several miles. To our first question about finding any of the capercailzie, we were given to understand there was no doubt of it; and therefore we commenced our day's work with alacrity. The first wood we beat was in our immediate neighbourhood, but our chasseur did not conceal from us that his hopes in that quarter were not great. "The birds," he said, “at this time of the season usually ascended to the high pine forests," to which he pointed in the distance, and which plainly gave token of some hard work being in store for us; "but," he added, "if we should fortunately

NO. XV.-VOL. III.-NEW SERIES.

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find any here, we should be much more likely to get shots at them." This wood was upon the steep side of a hill, with some moderately sized timber, and a good deal of underwood. We formed into line (six guns, including the chasseur) and in the course of about ten minutes the first bird was flushed. It was a hen, and got up from the ground, which was a good sign; but still she was wild enough to take pretty good care of herself, for, though the nearest man fired at her, the distance was too great for any probability of killing; and though, when last seen, she appeared flying low, we could never find her again. In the search, however, we found two or three woodcocks, which occupied us some time; and then turning round the hill to the right, we beat our way towards the before mentioned pine-wood.

This little narrative would remain imperfect without some description of the ground over which we were walking, for it was singular. This steep hill-side was thickly studded with large pieces of rock from which the earth in the course of ages had been apparently washed away; and smaller fragments of stone, into which some portion of them had been broken. Over these rough beds the creeping underwood in some places made way, while from the statelier trees above, the leaves of many an autumn, and the broken branches of many a storm, had thickly strewed the ground, hiding the stony crevices from the eye, and rendering the footing unstable. Occasionally we even found some fine scion of the forest, lying across our way; to whose fall once, in the language of Goëthe," the mountain had thundered with a dead hollow muttering," but which now rests in silence and neglect, a fit emblem of the solitude around. It was a novelty to an Englishman to find himself in a wood, where there appeared no trace of the axe of the forester, or where the poor children, from the nearest hamlet, had not roamed for a bundle of fallen branches. Though not within the precincts of the Black Forest, we were in the same unbroken range of Upland wood? and I could not help thinking of Moreau's celebrated retreat. If glory is to be awarded to genius struggling with adversity, truly indeed has the historian observed, that "it was an achievement equal to a victory." Even a few sportsmen, with nothing to carry but our guns, did not pass through the day without several casualities. We had proceeded very little on our beat before one of the party got a capsize, and then another, and then I had two myself in the course of about as many minutes; and our chasseur showed a marked intention of leading us over both the rough and the smooth at a good pace. "Gently over this rough ground," calls out an English captain of light cavalry, but rather slow in his movements here: arretez, sacre Dieu ! cries a French Count, who had just tumbled head over heels; but our conducteur did not seem to understand them. As he had alike the only

dogs, and the only knowledge of the country, I kept as well on a line with him as difficulties would permit; but I soon found that some of the party were inclined to lag behind. "Will you tell the fellow not to go at that infernal pace-we shall walk over everything," at length called out the captain from the rear, as he wiped the perspiration from his brow; and I did so, but I soon found that the word " langsome" (the German for gently), had no place in his vocabulary. He just slackened his pace for a few minutes, and then, pointing to where he had to go, observed, "it would not do to walk too slowly, and was soon going again nearly as fast as ever. In fact, as I repeated, in my broken German, that part of the message which related to the "walking over" of the wildest of all game, I saw him smile at the evident ruse de guerre, and could not help laughing myself.

We beat our way on in this manner, finding a woodcock now and then, but never turning back after him if missed, till at length we found ourselves at the long-wished-for pine wood; which became doubly welcome after the late sharp burst-the order of the day, now being "to walk slowly in line, with as little noise as possible." Of course we obeyed, and as no sort of underwood can grow beneath the shade of close-set pine trees, it was not difficult to make a tolerably silent march. But n'importe; the first thing we heard was a whirr from the top of a tree about seventy yards a-head, and then shortly another, and another. There they were surely enough, and, if we had not yet seen them, we had already seen the difficulty of killing them. Coming to rather a clearer part of the wood, we saw two or three go away out of distance; and then, when it again became thicker, two had the civility to wait till we got within about forty yards of them; but, as they could not be seen in their flight, no shot was as yet fired. The noise that one of these birds made, gave us a due estimate of its size; and we all agreed that it must have been an old cock-of-the-wood, whose keen eye, or delicate ear, had baffled many a chasseur before us, and would probably live to baffle many more. At length, our patience being exhausted, the first hopelessly long shot that presented itself was fired at; the only effect of which was, that one or two other birds took themselves off at the report. Two more shots of the same description were, during our beat, fired; but, during the whole day, though we must have flushed about twenty, not one of the six guns had any reasonable chance of killing. I certainly never experienced such surprise in any previous sporting excursion; the capercailzie is clearly of the grouse species, and grouse are commonly a close lying game. How often do we not get close upon the black-cock in England, or are obliged actually to kick up the common, or red grouse? The difference between the pine-tree and the heather may account for much, but not, I think, for all.

Having beaten this wood thoroughly, we went to another, at a little distance, but only found two or three birds in it, which might have been some of those previously flushed, though our man of the country thought otherwise. It was then his intention to have led us to another wood at some distance, but an unfavourable change in the weather put its veto upon the plan; and we, therefore, beat some lower covers in our immediate neighbourhood, where we found three or four more woodcocks. Even this kind of shooting was very difficult from the interminable wood around us, there was little chance of guessing where a bird might go after we lost sight of it, and the walking, tedious enough before, now became more so than ever, from the drizzling rain. In fact, in some parts it was more like climbing than walking, and climbing over rough and slippery ground; but our leader was not a man to be stopped at trifles. I had been accustomed to some sharp walking in my time (the hills of North Wales for instance), but, as we toiled along through some parts of these woods, I said to myself, well, if I am to be walked down, this is the man, and this is the country." I was the more surprised at the circumstance, because the Germans are not commonly fond of strong exercise; to smoke their pipes, and take things easily, being the general motto; and I had thought the remark a just one "that the place where they appear to exert themselves most, is a ball-room."

The rain coming on more heavily, we had nothing to do (although with a couple of good hours of day-light before us) but to make the best of our way to our rendez-vous for the night—a couple of mountain cottages, as far as eye could see, the only habitations in this wide world; and of which it will be enough to say, that they were as comfortless as could well be imagined. It cleared up a little during the night, and once, when I went from my straw couch to the window to reconnoitre, I thought we should have had a fine day; but the morning's light too clearly showed us the heavy clouds collecting over these high grounds, and it rained without intermission till the old clearing-up time, twelve o'clock. It then ceased, but left our prospects at a low ebb; and all we had to do was to beat through a portion of the woods on our way home. Arriving at the place where we were to begin, the rest of the party, perceiving how wet the trees were, and, I think, having some recollections of the previous day, agreed to keep along upon some open ground outside the wood, into which the chasseur and myself entered, and where we soon got thoroughly wet. However, we beat it as well as we could, and for some time without finding anything; but, towards the end of the hour, my companion observing "that the rest of the gentlemen might be lost if not called to," I gave them a holloo, and in a few seconds after the sound of my voice, a shot was fired in the direction where we supposed them to be. It supplied them with a