238 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



peculiar, requiring a game-license if a gun is used 

 for their destruction, though no such license is 

 necessary if their capture is effected by means of 

 nets or springes, such methods of fowling being 

 specially exempted from game duties (by Act 

 52 Geo. III., c. 93). 



In point of size the capercailzie is by far the 

 largest of British game-birds. Though formerly 

 it is said to have bred in Britain and Ireland, it 

 became extinct, and it is now nearly sixty years 

 since its reintroduction to Scotland, where it 

 has since thriven fairly well. Some fifteen years 

 ago a relation of mine shot eleven of these birds 

 in one season, and unless my memory is at 

 fault, I think that they were all shot by him in 

 the same day. This took place in Stirlingshire, 

 in which county they have done remarkably well. 

 It is stated that the stray females of the capercailzie 

 at times interbreed with the blackcock, the result 

 being a very handsome hybrid, with a tail some- 

 what similar to that of the blackcock. The caper- 

 cailzie would doubtless breed in other parts of the 

 United Kingdom if introduced into those districts 

 suitable for its reception. It is possible that some 

 of the larger fir-woods in Kent, or in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Woolmer Forest, might prove to be 

 favourable, more especially the latter, since there 

 are numerous small streams which intersect the 

 forest, and it is a wild and thinly populated dis- 

 trict. The New Forest would also appear to be 

 well adapted for the purpose. 



