The Game Birds and Wild Fowl of Sweden and Norway

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Shooting Capercali at the Pairing-Ground. ? To the Pointer. ? Tragical Event. ? Swedish Criminal Law. ? To the Fogel-Hund. ? Adventmv with a Bear. ? Good Sport. ? How to make a Bag. Capercali, owing to its great size and eatable . qualities, being in every sense of the word a great acquisition...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Shooting Capercali at the Pairing-Ground. ? To the Pointer. ? Tragical Event. ? Swedish Criminal Law. ? To the Fogel-Hund. ? Adventmv with a Bear. ? Good Sport. ? How to make a Bag. Capercali, owing to its great size and eatable . qualities, being in every sense of the word a great acquisition to the larder, various are the expedients resorted to in Scandinavia to effect its capture. Many fall to the gun, and, for the most part, in the pairing season; at which time, though contrary to law, thousands of these noble birds (chiefly males) are mercilessly slaughtered. Any lump of a fellow, indeed, who is able to pull a trigger can then knock them down in the way I am now about to describe. The whereabouts of the Lek-stdlle, of which mention was made in the last chapter, having been ascertained, the gunner ? for a sportsman he can hardly be called ? proceeds to the spot either over-night (in which case he bivouacks in its vicinity), or at a very early hour in the morning. He should be there, we are told, by the first dawn of day, when the Woodcock begins to rode, 38 SHOOTING AT THE PAIKIXG-GROUND. and the shrill notes of the Woodlark (Alauda arborca, Linn.) ? hence called the Tjdder-klockan, or the Caper- cali-watch?are heard in the forest. Here the man listens in profound silence until he hears the spel of the cock, then, for the most part, perched on or near to the top of a pine. Sheltering himself as much as possible behind trees, and other cover, he stealthily approaches the bird; but, owing to imperfect daylight and the thickness of the wood, he is often unable to see it until close upon it. So long, however, as the first and second notes, kndppningen and klunken, last, he must remain stationary, and, if hi an exposed situation, immovabl...