LAWS OF EXTENSION OF RANGE. Ill 



fourth or a fifth — consists of old timber, and the remainder 

 of a succession of growths in regular rotation; forested in 

 fact like a German forest, thus offering abundance of food, 

 shelter, and quiet. And further, there ought to be, so to 

 speak, convenient natural avenues or wooded continuations — 

 'forest stepping-sto7ies ' — to other districts, either in valleys, or 

 along the hill-slopes, to act as safety-valves for the escape of 

 surplus population. 



The hen Capercaillies appear to be, in most cases, the 

 pioneers, wliich lead to the extension of the range of the 

 species ; and it is natural that they should act as the pioneers, 

 as they are more numerous than the cocks, and increase 

 in numbers more rapidly, as is the case with most poly- 

 gamous species.'^ The birds, from some point of vantage on 

 the outsldrts of their residence, view a large pine wood, even 

 at some miles distance, and make direct for it. 



It is suggested and believed by several correspondents that 

 the pioneers are entirely composed of young birds driven away 

 from the lecking ground, and haunts of their native coverts. 

 This is no doubt in great measure the case, and is only part of 

 the mode in which the natural law is put in force, but I must 

 certainly uphold that attraction does take place by the most 

 likely coverts and woods, as all our statistics indeed go to 



1 According to Lloyd — quoting the writings of others on the birds of 

 Sweden — it would appear that the males are by many considered the most 

 abundant, giving rise to the extraordinary migrations of the male birds from 

 time to time, ' en raasse^ in the north of Europe ; and we also are told of the 

 wandering habits of the males, which are said to ^forfiyga sig,' i.e., "to fly it 

 knows not whither " — in the same way as I find the hens do in this country — 

 and being shot in strange out-of-the-way localities. The author of ' Tidskrift 

 for Jagare ' is quoted by Lloyd, as stating that from experience he " has found 

 that both capercali and blackcock broods contain more males than females." 

 Certainly this flocking together and wandering propensity of the males in 

 Scandinavia is singular. I have utterly failed to obtain any statistics con- 

 firmfvtoiy of this superabundance of males in Scotland ; indeed, our experience 

 is quite opposed to that of continental naturalists, unless, indeed, the killing 

 of 17 males in one day at Keillor wood, near Methven, can be said to point to 

 a superabundance of males. 



