142 THE CAPERCAILLIE. 



cones. Mr. Hancock considers that these plants are generally 

 reared from slips and not from seed. It has been the fashion 

 of late years to plant this for cover for game. 



Mr. Hancock considers the work of the Capercaillie as a 

 natural state of pruning, which, in forests or woods of con- 

 siderable extent, would result in little or no harm to the trees. 

 In this Mr. Collett of Christiania would appear to agree in 

 his remarks quoted above ; and, indeed, I think all who con- 

 sider at all that the balance of nature should be respected 

 will have a similar opinion. If the population is too great 

 for the extent of wood, no doubt damage must ensue ; but, as 

 pointed out by several correspondents, not to speak of my 

 own mexperienced observations, this balance of nature could 

 be preserved, or at least the evU remedied, if — as Mr. Hancock 

 says — " all landed proprietors would plant two trees for every 

 one cut down ;" then the food supply would soon be in excess 

 of the requirements of the birds." I have elsewhere shown 

 that an increase of the population beyond what the balance 

 of nature can stand results in the emigration of the surplus 

 birds, and that an over-stock of birds cannot last for any 

 length of time ; a natural law proved by the very fact of the 

 distribution and extension of range of species. If artificial 

 feedmg, or great excess of young wood be planted, the birds 

 will increase in number accordingly ; but this, too, will have 

 its limit. The whole question appears to me to resolve itself 

 into the question of the balance of nature and natural laws. 

 If man, on the one side, infringes these laws by making two 

 trees grow where nature only grew one, he must expect to see 

 perhaps double the number of Capercaillies, because double 

 the amount of food for them is supphed. But, on the other 

 hand, in many parts of Scotland, the balance of nature has 

 been disturbed by reckless cutting of forests withoiot replant- 

 ing. The consequence here is that the birds become propor- 

 tionately scarcer, after no doubt doing a certain damage to 



