Northern Observations of Inland Birds 131 



For reasons which are not always easy to ascertain the 

 capercaillie population in due course drifts out of a given 

 area (owing, possibly, to the age of the forests) till the 

 birds become so rare as no longer to figure in the sports- 

 man's bag. In due course, however, the forests improve, 

 possibly by the maturing of new timber, and so the capers 

 come back — always, however, with a great majority of 

 hens. The cocks do not arrive in any numbers till the 

 hen birds are well established, and it follows that the hens 

 are the first to begin to drift out of old forests, leaving 

 the cocks in possession. 



The same thing occurs but to a less marked degree 

 among blackgame. For example, the blackgame have 

 entirely left the New Forest ; nor, in this case, are they 

 likely to return, as there are no forests near from which 

 the forsaken area will naturally become re-stocked. In 

 Scotland the same shifting and sorting takes place, but 

 in this case birds return from neighbouring ranges as the 

 time suits them. 



Blackgame and capercaillie have many characteristics in 

 common, though, of course, they are widely different in 

 habits and their general choice of habitat, the caper 

 being essentially a pine grouse, while blackgame have no 

 marked liking for pine woods. The black grouse love best 

 the well-wooded ranges, broken by patches of bracken, 

 gorse, birch groves and alder fringes along the burns, 

 rather than the gloomy coniferous retreats and pine-capped 

 ridges so favoured by the capercaillie. But their mating 

 habits are almost identical, so we will proceed to discuss 

 those of the black grouse as typical. 



In regions where these birds exist, the *' chauteling *' 

 call of the cock birds is to be heard throughout the spring 

 and summer — chiefly m the early mornmg, but on and 

 off throughout the day. It is a curious sound, not 

 unmusical, and though so soft that it may escape the ear, 



I 2 



