138 THE CAPERCAILLIE. 



or tufty young trees were pointed out to me, and I clearly 

 saw where the central buds of the " leaders " had been picked 

 out — or had dropped off! — resulting in side shoots taking 

 the place of the leaders, and thus deforming the trees. This 

 was affirmed to be the damage done solely by the Capercaillie, 

 which birds were stated to stand upon the ground and pick 

 out the buds from the leading shoots, when the trees were 

 perhaps four or five years old, and had been planted perhaps 

 three years. After reaching this age the trees are considered 

 safe, as they are too high for the birds to reach the terminal 

 shoot from the ground, and the young upper branches and 

 leader are too young and tender to bear the weight of the 

 bird. Becoming older still, the terminal shoot lengthens 

 beyond the reach of the Capercaillie when it stands upon 

 the upper branches, and the birds are then obliged to feed upon 

 the side shoots. It was further stated that the trees, in con- 

 sequence of this treatment when young, were delayed in their 

 growth, and that many were destroyed and rendered useless. 

 Notwithstanding all this apparently strong evidence 

 against the Capercaillie, I reserved the right of agent for the 

 defence, with the hope of being able to pick holes still in the 

 evidence ; or, at all events, to mitigate his sentence. I saw a 

 tree on the same property at least forty years old (on the 

 authority of the proprietor), which was standing close to the 

 young plantation, and with the same exposure, which was 

 stunted in exactly the same way. It is needless to point out 

 that that deformity could scarcely have been caused by 

 Capercaillies, unless they attack old trees also, as CapercaiUies 

 were not introduced successfully into that district until 1864, 

 when the trees woidd be thirty years of age ; or, taking the 

 imperfect introduction resulting in hybrids in 1856, and sup- 

 posing the few birds there at that time capable of douig any 

 damage, which is too unlikely, still the trees would be 

 twenty-two years of age. 



