124 THE CAPERCATLLIE. 



greatly on land after it has been improved; and the quality, 

 probably, of beef and mutton, and certainly of milk, and its 

 products — butter and cheese — is greatly deteriorated on im- 

 proved land, while the quantity is largely increased." 



Water is in itself necessary for the health of black game, and, 

 as Lloyd informs us, the want of it in certain seasons " visibly 

 diminished their numbers" {op. cit. p. 74). On the other 

 hand, trees are necessary to the welfare of Capercaillies. But 

 drainage is necessary to the growth and health of forest trees, 

 so that the interests of the Capercaillie and black game are 

 really antagonistic in a considerable degree to one another, 

 though it cannot, with justice, be said that the former are 

 actually "driving out" — which is the expression generally 

 used — the latter. Eather say the conditions favourable to 

 the former are, in a measure, antagonistic to the latter.^ 



Indeed, I have evidence in at least one instance of a 

 reaction, that is to say, of the black game actually increasing 

 in a locality where CapercailUes have been on the decrease 

 for twenty years, not simply because the Capercaillies have 

 decreased, but because the same reasons which caused the 

 Capercaillies to decrease, viz., the cutting of large extents of 

 forest without a corresponding area being replanted, and little 

 or no draining operations having been carried on — have bene- 

 fited the black game, and caused them to increase again in 

 numbers. To make perfectly sure of this fact, I was at some 

 pains to obtain statistics from the locality in question regard- 



^ Indeed, if we come to investigate the subject further, we find red grouse 

 decreasing, and black game increasing, under similar or parallel conditions. 

 Thus, in Buchanan parish, Stirlingshire, we find the red grouse "superseded 

 by the black grouse (' New Slat. Accl. of the County,' p. 91) ; also a great de- 

 crease of the former in Kirkcudbright {op. cit. p. 110)." "Scarcely a black 

 cock to be seen in 1809 in Kirkgunzcon parish, Kirkcudbright, now outnum- 

 bering the grouse" {op. cit. p. 219) ; and many more instances could be given. 

 On the other hand, in certain districts, in localities where there is a suitable 

 provision for both species — sufficient heather for the grouse and sufficient 

 marshy ground and grass for black game, as, for instance, in parts of the high 

 flat moors of Ayrshire — both species thrive and multiply. 



