A forest. There are a lot of memories by hunters which are connected with this short word. The forest in our republic is very various. In the east and in the north there is a thick and impenetrable taiga. It means century-long pine forests with very high mast pines. They say, when you look at the pine-top your cap is tumbled down. It also means transparent in spring, bright-green in summer and dressed in gold and in purple in autumn birch-groves; rich overgrown and different as per kinds of trees and bushes mixed forests; forest rivers and lakes; lonely ravines and moss bogs, magnificent carpets of juicy grasses and bright flowers, abundance of all sorts of mushrooms and berries. This is a varied and the richest nature of forests of Mari El Republic.

The fauna of our forests is also diverse. The forest birds in our republic are very numerous. The most ancient and mysterious bird is a wood-grouse. It is one of the largest representatives of the hunting birds of our republic. As for the words of S.T.Aktasov: "implicitly can be named the first forest game-bird." The wood-grouse occupies the most solitary plots of forest and moss places. There are also such kinds of singing birds and birds of prey in the forests of Mari El Republic: a blackcock with fantastical lyre-shaped tail, a real forest hermit hazel-grouse, a forest handsome woodcock and a large armee of the other different birds.

The hunting for coniferous birds-game is the most interesting, the most poetical and the most many-sided from all sport feather-hunting. What can be equal with a beautiful spring evening on the wood glade, when everywhere a wonderful concert, arrived from the south singing birds and the woken up from winter sleeping frogs, is spread. The far mumbling of black grouses, the calls of hares, the bleating of snipe, flying above the forest bog, the musical call-over of the crane flight and the sweet cooing of turtle-dove are worked into this concert. The hunter standing under the tree is charmed with this concert. He listens to "when over birch-tops and alder thickets the woodcock flights."

The spring black grouse mating-places are very good and unforgettable. The hunting with gun-dog for woodcock, black grouse and willow grouse is also remarkable. There is much poetry in this hunting.

The hunting for game is the most beautiful bird-huntings.

The hunting on a wood grouse`s floor The hunting on a black grouse`s floor The hunting to a black grouse brood The hunting as per spring desire of woodcock Autumn hunting as per passage of woodcock