CAPERCAILLIE 27 



and, like Mark Twain's character, who affirmed that no 

 one could be positive in his assertion that a buffiilo was 

 unable to climb a tree, simply because no one had ever 

 seen one of those animals try to do so, so is it quite 

 possible that these birds may at times attempt to defend 

 themselves. I know another gentleman — an excellent 

 naturalist — who declared to me that once on o-oino^ to 

 kill a cock, which was ensconced under a spruce-fir tree, it 

 had rushed out at him and snapped in two a little stick 

 which he was holdino; in his hand and with which he was 

 endeavouring to oust the bird from his position. He is a 

 man well known in sporting circles in Scotland, and would 

 not make such statements unless they were true. 



Perhaps no bird is so little poached or so little 

 interfered with in any way, l)otli on account of its scarce- 

 ness and its very small marketable value, as the Caper, 

 and a poacher would have to be a very smart fellow 

 indeed to make any success in trapping them. In this 

 country one may say they are never killed in any way 

 but Ijy shooting, and for an account of all the ingenious 

 devices used in Norway, Sweden, and Russia for its 

 caj^ture by snares, I must refer my readers to other works 

 on the subject, as these few notes of mine are intended to 

 be entirely in the " rough," and are innocent of the scissors 

 in furnishing elaborate accounts of what I have never 

 m3'self seen. 



Not being regarded amongst the Game Birds proper 

 of Great Britain, the Capercaillie has no special time 

 assigned as to the commencement or termination of the 

 shooting period. It can therefore only be looked upon as 

 one of our ordinary wild birds, and may therefore be shot 



