| Fauna curiosities of our forests |
 |
| Slope Chicken at Regional Museum |
| In the notes of Johann August Großkopff, hunter
on duty for the "Princely Saxonian Coburg-Saalfeldschen Reichmannsdorfer
forest", written in 1753, you can read: " The big wood howler
or slope chicken is one of the tallest among the inhabitant Wals-birds
or venisons in Germany, second only to the rooster of the open fields. |
|
 |
|
Similar sized like the welsh or Calectucian rooster
his color is mixed of grey, black, white and brown feathers and he
has got a crest and a cling of red color under his bended beak. Very
curious are its feet of different sizes, matching perfectly the demands
of the downhill inclined slopes." ( The oldest notice commenting
the slope chicken.) Surviving in slope areas caused in periods of
time this unique curiosity in the fauna: the short slope foot and
the more than the third part longer supporting leg stabilizing standing
and balance of this woodhowler.
After the mating season in early spring the chicken starts to build
the nest collecting feathers, different sorts of grass and moss, prefering
sunny and rocky slopes. |
|
|
|
| The 5 - 8 gnomebird-like, ocher- colored eggs, laid
down with soft stings, are closed in the eggskin opposite the lay-down
direction and will dry in the nest similar like a chestnut shell with
thorns showing a solidness like the shell of a beetle in order to
keep away nest robbers and protecting the eggs from rolling out of
the very flat nest. |
 |
| Slope Chicken at Regional Museum |
|
