Word: auerhahne
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Most German sportsmen would trade a boatload of Belchen for a single Auerhahn (European grouse), a bird so wily that one stuffed carcass is often all a man can show for a lifetime of shooting (TIME, April 28). The duckbilled, chicken-bodied coots that the gunmen slaughter in their annual Belchenjagd (Belchen hunt) are worthless as trophies, and dead birds are usually given to the nearest garbage collector. Some hunters claim that a Belchen is edible-if it is marinated for two weeks in buttermilk and roasted with chestnuts...
...Johnson covered 150 yds. before he spotted his quarry: a green-and-grey bird with red-hooded eyes, perched comfortably on a pine branch. Johnson's double-barreled shotgun shattered the morning, and the bird dropped. After six years of trying, the hunter had finally bagged his first Auerhahn-the plump European grouse (English name: capercaillie) so rare that it is verboten to shoot more than one in a lifetime, so elusive that only the most persistent hunter ever brings home his quota...
...delicacy, devotion and disappointment, few sports come close to the Auerhahn shoot. Only the male of the species may be hunted, and the bird is so cagey that it can be approached only during mating season-when its sharp sense of hearing is momentarily dulled by the ecstasy of its own love call. Bad weather or bad luck can plague the most careful stalker. Heavy winds, for example often drown out the telltale mating call; morning alpine mists make successful camouflage. And when the Auerhahn is not clucking rapturously, it is listening intently for female response; the slightest sigh from...
...make matters worse, the Auerhahn sings mostly at night, only when it feels the urge, and never for more than half an hour at a time. Many a luckless sportsman has shivered through an entire night in the dank, cold forest, only to go home at dawn-sniffling and hungry-without once having heard the pop of a cork. Since 1954, only 268 Auerhahne have been shot in the West German woods. Of these, 90 were shot down by U.S. armed forces personnel, who have taken to the sport with so much enthusiasm that they have already organized 100 hunting...
...Johnson's hatband to symbolize the bond between hunter and hunted. The two men squatted bareheaded on the ground, observed 15 minutes of silence in memory of the fallen grouse. Then Johnson slung his 10-lb. prize over his shoulder and headed for a taxidermist. For though the Auerhahn makes a fine trophy, it is frightful table fare: its flesh has a decided flavor of turpentine...
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