author of several
excellent works on the wild sports and natural history of Scandinavia,
supplied the stock from Sweden, but it must be always borne in mind that
the original British race was wholly extinct, and no remains of it are
known to exist in any museum.

This species is widely, though intermittently, distributed on the
continent of Europe, from Lapland to the northern parts of Spain, Italy
and Greece, but is always restricted to pine-forests, which alone afford
it food in winter. Its bones have been found in the kitchen-middens of
Denmark, proving that country to have once been clothed with woods of
that kind. Its remains have also been recognized from the caves of
Aquitaine. Its eastern or southern limits in Asia cannot be precisely
given, but it certainly inhabits the forests of a great part of Siberia.
On the Stannovoi Mountains, however, it is replaced by a distinct though
nearly allied species, the _T. urogalloides_ of Dr von Middendorff,[2]
which is smaller with a slenderer bill but longer tail.

The cock-of-the-wood is remarkable for his large size and dark plumage,
with the breast metallic green. He is polygamous, and in spring mounts
to the topmost bough of a tall tree, whence he challenges all comers by
extraordinary sounds and gestures; while the hens, which are much
smaller and mottled in colour, timidly abide below the result of the
frequent duels, patiently submitting themselves to the victor. While
this is going on it is the practice in many countries, though generally
in defiance of the law, for the so-called sportsman stealthily to draw
nigh, and with well-aimed gun to murder the principal performer in the
scene. The hen makes an artless nest on the ground, and lays therein
from seven to nine or even more eggs. The young are able to fly soon
after they are hatched, and towards the end of summer and beginning of
autumn, from feeding on the fruit and leaves of the bilberries and other
similar plants, which form the undercovert of the forests, get into
excellent condition and become good eating. With the first heavy falls
of snow they betake themselves to the trees, and then, feeding on the
pine-leaves, their flesh speedily acquires so strong a flavour of
turpentine as to be distasteful to most palates. The usual method of
pursuing this species on the continent of Europe is by encouraging a
trained dog to range the forest and spring the birds, which then perch
on the trees; while he is baying at